


A different journey

by FallenIceAngel



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Different Devil Fruit Monkey D. Luffy, F/F, F/M, Garp being (somehow) responsible, M/M, character death can happen, different crew, different timeline for some events, ooc is possible, relationships can be different than canon, tags will be added with the update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-07 09:13:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 47,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14667927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallenIceAngel/pseuds/FallenIceAngel
Summary: A visit from Garp to a certain point changed Ace's and Luffy's life.the ratings are just to be safe.crossposted on ff dot net





	1. ~Prologue – The beginning of a new journey~

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this going to be my second longer One Piece project and I seriously can't say how long this story will be and how the updates will come. I will try to update at least once a month when I am in a flow of the story, it can be more chapters. But I don't do any promises. This story is still in the writing phase after all.
> 
> Also, there will be no update until I uploaded the last bonus chapters of 'Until they notice'. I just upload it earlier than I intended to get some reader ideas for the crew (more mentioned in the warnings) and also to see how you like it.
> 
> Before I say a few things about some, you can call them warnings. I would like to say, I know there will be mistakes. Mistakes I do not notice (only much later often x.x) and the programme, I use to keep the number low, don't notice them. So it would be a help if you point them out, so I can correct them. Just don't try to take off my head because of them. English is not my mother language. Also, I don't have a beta reader at the moment. I want one, but this system on fanfic dot net is a bit confusing (just my opinion^^').
> 
>  
> 
> **To the warnings(or tags on AO3 as this is cross-posted), please read this before you start reading the story:**
> 
>  
> 
> - _fighting scenes_ : This is the first for me writing them in English and I usually think the lack something. So I appreciate constructive critic on them, so I can get better. But I think the first few will suck... I don't know.
> 
> - _possible character death_ : You have to expect this one. I don't know if I kill off an important character or not, because my mind likes to change during writing a story. So I give you this warning to be safe.
> 
> - _Alpha/Beta/Omegaverse_ : This something I really want to include. But more the impact on society. I hope it works and well with that I guess I can say, mpreg and smut will be hinted or will be in the story. (I don't know if when I write the explicit scenes they stay in the chapter for the fanfic. net version or if they are just in the AO3 version.)
> 
> - _different crew_ : I bet some of you could already guess it from the summary, but yeah, this story is having a different (how much different, I haven't decided, yet) crew, which will probably get another name as in the canon. I'll like to have fifteen people on the crew. Excluding the four you already know after the prologue, there are eleven places (well more eight, as I have three people in mind I want to join for sure, but have to deal with their introduction, yet). Any suggestions? I'm open for them^^
> 
> - _timeline_ : To the timeline, well there are things that happened like they did in the canon, but then there are things that are changed and maybe people who are thought to be dead are still alive. But no more details on that to avoid spoilers. Just a few things I can say without spoiler you. Luffy didn't get his devil fruit from Shanks. But the incident with the sea monster, where Shanks lost his arm, still happened. Also, I can say that much they will visit places which were shown in the anime/manga, but the actions there will be different (as the crew members are different and will react differently to certain situations). I will try to have some parts of their journey based on my ideas of an island and its inhabitants, too. But I don't how everything will turn out, yet.
> 
> - _Pairings_ : You can expect BoyXGirl, BoyXBoy, and GirlXGirl. I'm not sure on most pairings and they can and some probably will change during the storyline. The only one, which is a constant, is MarcoXLuffy (my OTP at the moment), but this won't happen until later. For AO3, I will tag the pairing, if a new one appeared, when I upload the chapter after it appeared. The same can be said about characters, which will play a role.
> 
> I hope I didn't forget anything in my rambles... Just one thing, you should expect sometimes the unexpected. Really, do it. If I go through with some of my ideas for this story... well let's just say some of them a crazy and probably has some plot holes that I have to fill first:x And when I talk about plot holes, there will be a few at first. Some things that will be explained in a flashback or later during the journey. So I won't give you an answer if you asked about. Well maybe I gave one, but then it will be more a riddle or a useless answer;)
> 
> But enough rambled. I proudly present to you the prologue of 'A different journey' (the title can change during the story, but it is my working title at the moment^^')

Garp wasn't sure what should expect when he heard Luffy crying and Ace shouting the whole way to Dadan's house. Yeah, he knew the boys could be loud. But he never heard Luffy crying like that and Ace's voice sounded angry and tired. He also noted sadness. What could happen to his boys to make them like that? Normally they could even laugh off his training methods. He clenched his fists and fasten his pace. Whoever dared to hurt his boys like this was going to meet his fists. He cared for his boys, even if he didn't show it very often.

 

When he arrived at Dadan's house, the vice admiral noticed that Ace was tied up to a tree while Luffy's crying came out of the house. The black-haired boy fought with the ropes and shouted that someone should free him and he would show this bastard. „Ace, what's wrong?" Garp looked concerned for his adopted grandson. Ace finally noticed Garp and was shocked first. The boy looked at him. He didn't move. He didn't even seem to like to answer. But then Ace opened his mouth. His words were quiet, but Garp did understand him.

„Why would you care, stupid Jiji? " He sighed and freed Ace from the rope. Garp put one hand on the boy's shoulder before he led him into the house.

 

He looked around for his biological grandson. He found the young boy in one corner of the room. Luffy looked smaller than usual. „Sabo…", he sobbed. Garp turned his head to look for his blonde adopted grandson. But he couldn't see the top-hatted boy. He had a bad feeling about the absences of the boy.

 

„Dadan", Garp shouted and made Luffy flinched. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see that Ace was conflicted how to deal with the situation. Garp sighed and pushed the boy softly to his younger brother. Ace looked up a bit unsure what exactly he wanted. But then the older black-haired one went to his little brother and sat down next to him.

 

Garp let a soft smile ghost over his face before he turned to Dadan, who entered the room. She looked grumpy like always, but her face turned into a shocked expression as she noticed the vice admiral.

 

„Garp-san?! "

„What is going on here, Dadan? I found Ace tied to a tree, Luffy crying and Sabo missing. "

Silence filled the room. Garp didn't like it. Because it reminded him of the death reports at work. He feared the answer. But this was most likely the answer that Sabo …

 

„Sabo died… his ship was shot by this world bastard…", Dadan said and clenched her fists in anger. Garp was shocked. He had expected a lot of ways how Sabo could have died since he started to suspect it, but not this one. He gritted his teeth and looked at Ace and Luffy.

 

The younger one was now asleep in the arms of his older brother. Ace still looked unsure, but when he noticed Garp's glance he tightened the hug as to protect his little brother.

 

Garp didn't like to think about their pain, but he could imagine it and he was in pain just thinking about it. It made him also questioned if they were still safe. He had sworn himself to protect them by hiding them and training them. Perhaps it was wrong to hide them…

 

„I take Ace and Luffy with me."

„What?! Why, Garp-san?"

„We won't become Marines, stupid Jiji."

 

The fire in Ace's eyes reminded Garp of Gol D. Roger. But he didn't say anything about that. It was better not to mention the boy's father. Not when he was already angry.

 

„I'm not taking you two with me to make you Marines. You are too young for that. I'm taking you with me because it could help you with your grief. I'm not telling you to forget about Sabo, but seeing a different, new surrounding might help you get over it."

 

Ace just stared at him. He could see that the boy didn't know what to think of that. It would probably take some time when they were on the ship to get them halfway back to their normal selves. But if it helped them Garp would be ready to do anything.

 

„You can't just come here and demand that they come with you. You are away most of the time. How do you expect the brats to trust you?!", Dadan shouted. She seemed angry. Garp could understand till a certain point. But she didn't help them deal with the death of their brother. Being tied to a tree or left alone in a corner didn't help one bit. But he didn't have the time to discuss this with her.

 

„Pack their things, Dadan." His voice was more a growl. He didn't want to be angry, but if he had to be a bit harsher towards Dadan to made her work, he would do it. She shouldn't question his dominance. „My boys want to go out to the sea someday. So the vacation from Dawn Island will not only perhaps help them learn to deal with their grief, but also I can prepare them what is happening there on the seas. At the moment I don't care if they become pirates or Marines. I just want them to be prepared so that they are safe when they start their own journey. So they come with me."

 

Dadan looked at him. Her brown eyes still full of anger. But it seemed less. She didn't question his authority any longer. She sighed. „Fine, I pack their things. But don't think to leave without letting the brats say Good-bye to Makino."

 

Garp nodded and Dadan climbed the ladder to the boy's room to pack their things.

 

The vice admiral sighed and turned his head to Ace. He went on his knees. „I know that you probably hate me for this decision. But I feel that this could help you and I swear I won't try to turn you into Marines. But you have to promise me not shout out loud that you want to become pirates, after all, you will stay on a marine ship. Especially Luffy. Can I trust you to keep him safe? I think he needs his big brother most at the moment and you need him, too."

 

The fire in Ace's eyes was still there. But it wasn't as challenging as in the beginning. The boy looked down at his younger brother and weighed his head from side to side.

 

„Will… Will it help us to get stronger?"

 

„I'm sure of that, Ace."

 

_~ten years later~_

 

Garp sighed as he looked at the ship with which his grandsons would start their adventure. They grew some much in the last ten years and got stronger that he somehow wished he could turn back time and had done this earlier. Maybe then Sabo would be still alive and on the ship with Ace, Luffy, Law and Bepo.

 

Someone sniffed next to him. „It is so sad to watch them go. I remember as it was yesterday that you placed them under my care and even when they got Bepo on board", Rosinante whipped a tear away but forced himself to smile. „We hold them off for three years. I don't think it could have worked any longer. Still, I am happy that they promised to stay adventurers at the start and only hoist the flag when they enter the New World if they still want to", Garp said.

 

„I wouldn't be so sure. If I know my brats, they hoist the flag earlier then you think", Dadan said. The woman fought with her tears.

 

„Good luck on your journey", Makino shouted as the sail was set.

 

„Remember to brush your teeth. Don't eat anything that is rotten. Take care of yourself. Don't start fights. I hope you meet many new friends and don't forget to smile", Rosinante shouted after the ship. A bright smile on his face, but tears in his eyes.

„You sound like a mother, Cora-san."

 

That was Law. Trying to be not touched by Rosinante's mother nature towards him.

 

„We are old enough to know this without being reminded."

 

And that was Ace who secretly was happy about the words. Because they meant that someone cares about him.

 

„I'll miss you, Cora-san. Thank you for everything. And everyone else, too. Jii-chan, greet uncle Dice and granduncle Goat from me."

 

Typical Luffy. No problem admitting what is on his mind. He will seriously miss the little troublemaker on board. It was fun to see new recruits dealing with him. In general how the new members of his ship dealt with his grandsons and grandnephew.

 

„Straightforward, Bepo."

 

„Aye, aye, captain."

 

Be safe, boys…


	2. ~Chapter 1 - The Stowaway ~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here it is the first chapter. The updates will be monthly as it works the best for me at the moment.
> 
> And for the crew, I need your input a bit.
> 
> Are there any good female characters who would be perfect to join? I do have a selection of six or seven potential female characters that could join. This would
> 
> Ain (Movie Z), Baby 5, Koala, Robin, Monet, Bonney and Perona.
> 
> Are there any more female characters who do seem to have a good evolution potential?
> 
> There are already three I am sure that I won't include the crew:
> 
> -Vivi (even if with her pirate side, I don't feel like she would really leave Alabasta)
> 
> -Shirahoshi (I tolerate her more than I enjoyed her..., so yeah no^^')
> 
> -Rebecca (same with Shirahoshi)
> 
> Also two I am not sure if should include them to the potential female members:
> 
> -Rejiu (I watch mostly the Anime, but I know some things from the Manga. Still I don't know enough about her, yet. So I'll keep this open)
> 
> -Nami (I am really conflicted about Nami if she would really be needed or not)
> 
> So, yeah that is just the female part. The male part is less hard as there are more interesting male characters who could join or maybe just be an ally. But this topic I leave for the next chapter ;)
> 
> Also, I should remark I do write the baselines on paper for the chapters. These chapters will change a bit when I type them in the word document. How much? I can never say as some ideas may change and also your comments will influence changes (depends on my mood, if I include an idea or just for the fun do the last thing you are expecting^^).

Luffy grinned brightly as he stood on the figurehead of their ship. The wind felt nice on his skin.

 

It was a good day to set finally sail for an adventure. He was only a little bit sad that there wasn’t a jolly roger flying over their heads, yet.

 

Stupid promise.

 

But there had to be a very good reason because Ace and Law wouldn’t have agreed. So he would follow the promise as best as he could. After all, a promise was a promise and it shouldn’t be broken this easily.

 

Luffy felt his stomach rumble and jumped from the figure.

 

“Ace, Torao, I’m hungry”, he shouted and ran into the kitchen, where his older brother and older step-brother were.

 

“You have eaten until the last minute before we got on board and we are only sailing for around ten minutes. I know you have a fast metabolism but how can you be hungry again?”, Law said with a lifted eyebrow.

“To be true, I am kinda hungry, too”, Ace told them with a cheeky grin.

“Bepo is probably hungry, too”, Luffy added and topped his attack by using his ultimate one (against the older two): his puppy-look.

 

“What do you want me to do? I am a doctor, well more a surgeon, not a cook”, Law said and crossed his arms. So his step-brother was being a meanie again. Luffy started to pout.

 

“Yeah, but you are the only one of us who is able to cook something without getting the kitchen on fire”, Ace reminded Law.

“Eat some bread. Then I don’t have to deal with that disgusting thing. Also, you don’t need to cook it”, the surgeon argued.

 

Okay, Law needed more. Luffy deepened his pout a little bit and gave his best puppy-look to his step-brother. “But Torao’s cooking tastes much better”, he said with a whiny voice.

 

The surgeon stared at him. He pushed his lower lip a bit more forward deepening the pout more. Hoping this was the way to succeed.

 

“Come on, Law. Can your omega-mother-instincts really say no to this adorable face?”, Ace asked and cuddled him. This made it quite hard for Luffy to remain his expression. Because getting cuddled by his big brother made him very happy and he wanted to smile to show it.

 

Law facepalmed before a sigh was heard from him. “Fine. But get out. Help, Bepo, until I am done.”

 

With a cheer, Luffy jumped out of Ace’s arms and hugged Law. He felt the other one tensed lightly. It made the boy smile more. It meant that Law was more accepting of physical contact. “Thank you, Torao”, Luffy cheered and ran out to Bepo.

 

The polar bear mink studied the surrounding with a telescope.

 

“Ship sighted”, Bepo said, as Luffy stood next to him.

 

This sentence alone made the boy excited. “Let me look, let me look”, he said jumping lightly up and down. Luffy looked forward to meeting new people and making new friends. It was an adventure.

 

Ace then appeared next to them and made him stop jumping around.

 

“That looks like a pirate ship”, his brother said, as they were able to see the outline of the other ship. A black flag flying on the high masts.

“It looks like a duck. Do you think we can grill it and then it tastes like one?”, Luffy asked innocently before he dodged a hit from his brother.

 

“Bepo, does the flag belongs to someone important?” “No, I haven’t seen it in the papers, yet.”

 

The other crew seemed to notice them because the duck ship was now sailing their way. “Looks like they want to party with us”, Luffy suggested, but a cannonball hit the water in front of them. The water flew in the air and then they were soaked.

 

“It isn’t bathing time, yet”, Luffy grumbled. Ace didn’t look happier. Especially when Bepo shook himself to get the water out of his fur.

“Bepo!”, his older brother growled.

“I’m sorry.”

“Leave Bepo alone, it is some natural thing”, Luffy pouted.

 

He could hear Ace grumbling while the older one picked up two pipes. “Luffy, Bepo, get ready to fight”, his brother said and threw one pipe at him. The grey eyes were fixed on the duck ship.

 

Luffy grinned while he caught his pipe. A fight sounded better than party. Well, only if there was meat after the fight.

 

Out of the corner of his eyes, the black haired boy noticed that Bepo was preparing himself for the fight, too. The polar bear jumped into the air and kicked a cannonball into the water to protect their ship.

 

“Don’t hurt Shippy, you stupid duck”, Luffy said towards the other crew. “We haven’t decided on a name, yet. And we won’t call it Shippy”, Ace grumbled.

 

The straw-hatted boy would have replayed to his older brother, but the others started to attack at that point.

 

Their opponents seemed to be only males and not at their level. Pity, Luffy thought this could have been a better training.

 

“Don’t you dare to slack off”, a female voice suddenly threatened the men.

 

Luffy kicked a man away before he looked around confused. There was no woman. Except for a fat person with an iron mace. This person was wearing female clothes.

 

“Ne, Ace, is that a man wearing female clothes like the one we saw on that heart island?”, Luffy asked while blocking a slash with his pipe.

“Luffy, that’s an insult to all people who live there. This is just an ugly woman”, Ace answered.

The enemies seemed shocked and the man-lady looked angry.

 

“How dare you to insult my beauty?!”, she asked. Her voice sounded a bit deeper than Dadan’s when Luffy thought about it. So it could have been a man, too.

 

“That was a simple opinion on your look. If you can’t take critics, maybe you should lock yourself in a room”, Law said as he came out of their kitchen.

 

The surgeon carried his sword, so he seemed ready for a fight, too.

 

“Men, show them what happened when people insult me!”, the man-lady shouted and glared angrily at her men.

 

A matching grin appeared on Ace’s and Luffy’s face. This promised to be interesting, even if the men weren’t strong.

 

Luffy dodged a slice and kicked the man’s leg away. He noticed that someone tried to hit him from behind, but he didn’t have to worry about it.

 

“Not attacks from behind!”, Bepo said and kicked the man away.

 

“The bear can talk?!” Only shocked faces were seen.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“You don’t have to apologize to idiots”, Ace said and swung his pipe against some shocked man to threw them off their ship.

 

“Don’t just call Bepo a bear. He has a name and is cooler than you”, Luffy said while headbutting an enemy.

 

“Stop talking and hurry. The food will be ready soon and don’t use it”, Law said clashing with one of the enemy’s swordsman.

 

“Food”, Luffy cheered with a grin and started to jump around the enemies like a monkey making them stumble over his pipe and hit themselves.

 

“Oi, Luffy, leave some for me, too”, Ace said kicking a man against the duck ship.

 

“Idiots… everything has to be done by myself…”, the man-lady mumbled and lifted her iron mace.

 

But it never touched their ship or Ace or Bepo or Luffy. It made contact with the woman’s head knocking her out. The iron mace felt left and right from her on the ground.

 

“Captain Alivda!”

 

The crew of the man-lady seemed shocked that she was defeated that quickly. Also, they didn’t seem to understand how she was defeated.

 

“Take your captain and disappear, before we decide to sink your ship”, Law said with a dark glare towards the man.

 

Luffy laughed when they withdrew. “Oi, leave your proviant on our ship”, Luffy said with a bright grin and laughed over the faces, they made.

 

~*~*~

 

“We are lucky that there weren’t any other witnesses to this fight”, Law said.

 

His little step-brother or little cousin (if following the family titles their grandfather’s set up) tilted his head and looked confused at him while chewing on the meat.

 

Law sighed. Sometimes he wondered how the innocent and simple-heartedness of Luffy was still intact, even if the surgeon knew the boy could be quite the devil. But secretly Law would protect this sweet innocent part of the boy.

 

“You worry too much, Law. The marine wouldn’t give us bounties for beating up some low-life pirates. I bet none of them had a bounty”, Ace said and stuffed his mouth with meat.

 

“We are an unknown crew of four people being able to beat up a whole pirate crew including the captain with ease. That means if there were marine witnesses they would keep an eye on us or at least remember us which will lead to some questions I would like to avoid. Because that would lower our chances to lave the East Blue without breaking the promise”, Law explained with a sigh. But one look told him that the two others didn’t seem to care. So he had to use IT as a warning. “And I don’t think you like to get a taste of the fist of love.”

 

Both, Ace and Luffy, stopped in their movements. Then they shivered before they looked simultaneously behind them. Like Ace and Luffy expected to find Monkey D Garp behind them with a lifted fist.

 

A rare smile ghosted over Law’s face. It was fun to scare his little step-brothers/cousins a bit. Bepo blinked a bit towards him but didn’t say anything (luckily).

 

“Don’t joke about shitty grandpa. Also, as long as we don’t hoist a black flag everything will be fine”, Ace said grumpily.

“I want to hoist it finally. Shippy would look better with one”, Luffy chirped.

 

“Stop calling our ship Shippy. It doesn’t sound good. When we finally hoist the colour, I want our ship to have a cool name”, Ace said and tried to hit Luffy.

 

“No fight at the table, when there is food on the table”, Law slammed his hand on the table.

 

“But, Torao, I want to be a pirate finally and Ace is being a meanie”, Luffy pouted and pointed at the other one.

 

“You… You are pirates?!”, a scared voice screeched in a corner. Ruining the atmosphere and also stopping the fight.

 

They turned their heads to look at a small, slightly chubby boy with pink hair. He wore blue round-frame glasses and looked a bit timid.

 

When did the boy get on board?

 

“Who are you?”, Luffy asked the obvious question. “Great, now we have a stowaway”, Ace grumbled.

 

This made the boy shriek and he shrunk. Law had to concentrate to hear the next words. “I’m… Coby. I … I was… was forced to work on Alvida's ship and… well,… I thought I could get away from her finally…”

 

So the boy had slipped on their ship during the fight and now he found out that they intended to be pirates. This seemed to make Coby nervous and even timider when they confronted him. He looked like a lost puppy.

 

Law suppressed a groan. Damn, he hated this weird mother-complex-instincts. Why did he present as an Omega like Cora-san? Cora-san dealt way better with that if he had this, too, with them. Well, form the farewell, Law guessed Cora-san had them.

 

But that was beside the point. This damn instinct told him now not to hurt this chubby boy to make him talk or to stop him from mumbling. He seriously had to get some better suppressant. Maybe the instincts would be shut down a bit, too.

 

He sighed silently, for now, he couldn’t ignore them.

 

“We are not going to hurt you as long as you don’t give us a reason”, Law said with a neutral voice. Maybe the timid boy would be calmer after that.

 

“You worked for Alvida? Who is that?”, Luffy asked and tilted his head towards Ace.

“The man-lady, I guess”, the older one said. Luffy looked confused. Did he forget how the man-lady looked like?

 

“If you want to leave, then why didn’t you just tell her and leave?”

 

Law noticed how Ace had to suppress a laugh. But this boy, Coby, looked shocked. Well, Luffy’s logic was sometimes strange but mostly simple.

 

“It’s not easy! She would have killed me … so when I got on board your. I looked for treasures so she would be in a better mood… Ow.”

 

“Luffy!” His baby cousin/step-brother had hit the boy.

 

“What? He just accepted his fate without a fight and whines about it”, Luffy said and crossed his arms.

 

Law massaged his temple. Luffy’s reasons sounded right for someone like them who are able to fight. But for this chubby, timid boy the reasons were probably stupid or even dangerous.

 

“Luffy, not everyone is so reckless like you and also not everyone is able to fight for themselves. So you shouldn’t compare Coby with us and especially not with you. Someone, who would die for his dream”, Law said and made the black-haired boy sat down next to him again.

 

Coby looked even more shocked a Luffy now.

 

“What are we going to do with that stowaway?”, Ace asked. This led to Coby being in a panic again. “Don’t kill me. I swear, I will do everything. Just don’t hurt me”, the boy rambled.

 

Law closed his hand around the kitchen knife. Even with this stupid omega-mother-instinct. This was getting annoying.

 

“Law, no cutting people open at the moment”, Ace reminded him with an amused grin. This made Coby shriek again.

 

“No killing, Torao”, Luffy said and pouted.

 

He rolled his eyes. So his baby cousin/step-brother was allowed to hit the boy, but he wasn’t allowed to cut him open to make him shut up.

 

“Fine”, Law grumbled. “We let him work until we reach the next port and then leave him there.” The surgeon crossed his arms. This discussion was ended for him.

 

~*~*~   

 

Coby was surprised about this crew.

 

It contained a talking polar bear, which was kinda creepy, a boy who acted like the captain and but didn’t seem in charge, a young man who was the older brother of the boy and seemed very protective of his little brother, and a doctor, no, a surgeon who seemed to be a little to happy to think about cutting people open and was in charge.

 

He didn’t know if it was good or bad that he came across them. They would drop him off at the next port.

 

This sounded nice. But the deal was, he would work on their ship until they reach the next port. What was when they thought he did a good job… they would make him stay and work forever on their ship.

 

“We won’t make you stay. We don’t need someone on board who isn’t able to defend himself when we reach the Grand Line.” The voice of surgeon made him shriek.

 

Coby turned around with a scared look on his face. “G-Grand Line? But this is called the pirates grave.”

“So. We are aiming for the New World. Then we can do what we want”, the boy, Luffy, said with a bright grin.

 

Coby could just stare at him. How could the black-haired boy, who was only a year or two older, say something like this so easily with a grin on his face?

 

“You will mostly get killed before. The Grand Line is dangerous and … ow.”

 

Luffy had hit him again.

 

“I don’t care if I die for my dream or for my family. But I will work to accomplish my dream and to be strong enough to protect my family”, the straw-hatted boy said.

“Dream?”, Coby asked unsurely as Luffy spoke with such a confidence that it made him feel small.

 

“When we reach the New World, we are allowed to hoist the colour and then we will chase after the One Piece, so I become the pirate king.”

 

The bright grin on Luffy’s face didn’t vanish and he said this like it was a fact. Like he would really become the pirate king.

 

“But…”

 

“Are you going to say that my little brother is too stupid to realise the danger?”, the older black-haired brother said and stepped closer. The voice made Coby shiver. “Well, it may be true that it is going to be dangerous. But Luffy has Law, Bepo and me to help him and to kick the stupid bastards out of his way”, Ace added with a grin.

 

Okay… these two brothers weren’t alright.

 

“I hope we reach the New World quickly. I can’t wait to show you Zou”, the polar bear said.

 

Coby stopped his movements. The bear said something about reaching the New World. So this Zou would be there…

 

“Ne, Coby, are you planning to grow roots there? Don’t you have any life goals?”, Law asked and interrupted his thoughts.

 

“I … uhm…”, Coby mumbled. How could he express his dream? He would never be able to reach it and also it wasn’t a good option to say it in front of pirates, well future pirates.

 

“You have a dream, don’t you?”, Luffy looked at him with curiosity in this brown eyes.

“I… I want to become a good marine to protect the innocent.” Coby clenched his fist to control his shaking body.

 

There he had said. Now they are going to kill him because he intended to join the ‘natural’ enemy of pirates.

 

“Do you just want to become a good marine or will you become a good marine?”, Luffy asked. This surprised him as none of the crew moved to attack him.

 

“I… I will become a good marine!”

 

For some reason, Coby didn’t know, but he felt more confident at that moment. He couldn’t really explain it.

 

“Then let’s do our best to reach our dream”, Luffy said with a chuckle.

 

Shock. He didn’t know any other word to describe what he was feeling at this moment.

 

“Just because we intend to be pirates, doesn’t mean we pick fights left and right and attack marines or those who desired to be one. There are three different reasons to pick a fight and at the moment you do not show us one of these reasons”, Ace said.

 

“We are becoming too chatty with him. Maybe we should…”, Law started, the tone scared Coby, but Luffy interrupted the surgeon: “No, I like Coby if he lost his crybaby attitude. Ne, Bepo, when do we reach the next island?” This topic change made the pink-haired boy gap lightly.

 

“It won’t be much longer. But we have to be careful. Shells Town does have a marine base under the Marine Captain Morgan’s command.”

 

The faces of Law and Ace became grim and Coby wondered why.

 

If they didn’t attack marines without a reason then they shouldn’t have any problems. At least as long as they didn’t say anything about their intention to become pirates. So why would they be worried about a Marine Captain?

 

Coby would be more worried about the other person that is rumoured to be in Shells Town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So some ending notes~ I know there will be open questions sometime. I have a word-document with questions I can't answer, yet, because of well spoilers for later chapters. 
> 
> But if you want, I will remind you of your question in the ending notes of the specific chapter, where you can find the answer or do you want it in the author notes at the start, this would be a bit of a spoiler?
> 
> Also, I am sorry if the story seems to start a bit slow. But well, I need to gather a few crew members and for my more interesting ideas, I need them on the Grand Line. So yeah, bear with me ;)
> 
> And until next time, have a nice day^^


	3. ~Chapter 2 - Not just Black and White~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is the second chapter~ Thank you, for your input on the crew's female member. Well, I said I would present a bit of the male characters I think who could join. But~ no. I leave that as a surprise. But you can guess ;) Well, after the chapter you will know one of the three I mentioned at the start. Also, some guessing games in the author note at the end.

Ace was a bit worried about leaving Luffy alone to explore the city. Well, the stowaway was with his baby brother. But he feared that it wouldn’t be enough to stop Luffy doing something… well, Luffy-like.

 

“You know that I don’t need you to come with me”, Law said and interrupted his thoughts. Ace grumbled. Yeah sure… his cousin/step-brother seemed close to his heat. When this start Law would be very vulnerable and since Ace didn’t know when it started, he wouldn’t let Law go alone somewhere unknown. It was risky.

 

But neither could they force Luffy to come along with them to buy supplies and pick up some ingredients for medicines and other stuff. His baby brother would most likely get bored and then would start to run around and attract trouble. In lesser words, they would get nothing done if Luffy was with them.

 

So Ace sent a silent prayer to the sky that the Coby was scared enough of him to keep Luffy out of trouble. Well, the pink-haired boy did look pretty scared when he threatened him what he would do if he found a single scratch on his baby brother. So it could work.

 

“Why do we need that much stuff for suppressant?”, Ace asked curiously when he noticed that it was more than they usually bought. 

“We are now travelling on our own. Meaning we need to be prepared for every new attention to the crew. Therefore we also need suppressants for Alphas. Also, don’t forget Luffy entered the phase only last year. So there are still four years left in which he can present and I still hope he doesn’t because I fear the effects of his devil fruit type”, Law mumbled. 

“Four years? Doesn’t that mean I also could still present?”, Ace asked. But the surgeon shook his head no. 

“You didn’t show any sight during the years. So the chances are low that you will still turn out to be an Alpha or an Omega”, Law explained. 

“So it’s best to recruit people who are at least twenty-one? Because then we already know what we have to deal with the sudden presentation of their second gender as far as they have one”, Ace suggested. This earned him a glare. 

 

What was wrong now with what he said?

 

“We can’t use age as a factor for their recruitment. Because Luffy and you won’t fit the criteria, yet. I say the best bet is to look for people who are able to fight and haven’t reached their full potential, yet. Also, it would be nice to recruit some people who are able to swim”, Law said when they left the city to search the near forest for the fresh stuff the surgeon needed.

 

“Will be pretty hard. I don’t think there are many people in the East Blue who would be capable of travelling the Grandline”, Ace grumbled. 

“That doesn’t change the aspect that we need someone other than Bepo on the crew who is able to swim before we reach the Grandline. And now focus on finding the plants I need.”

~*~*~

 

Luffy had decided to explore the town a bit and had also decided to accompany Coby to the marine base. The pink-haired boy seemed a bit shaken after a talk with Ace. What did his big brother has said to the boy? Luffy wondered if he should ask. But then something more interesting crossed his mind.

 

“Ne, Coby, this Zoro-guy, you said who was rumoured to be around here. Is he really that strong?”, the straw-hatted boy wondered. 

“Don’t say his name out loud, Luffy-san. You’re scaring the people”, Coby mumbled. Luffy shrugged. Why should he be worried if the people are scared because of a name? The information about this Zoro, Coby had given, was interesting. The other sounded strong and cool. Now if he could only meet this guy.

 

“I don’t think it’s because I mentioned this Zoro-guy that the people are scared. They did look kinda worried before. Did Ace or Torao say something about this booze-guy who is stationed here?” Luffy turned his head to look at Coby. 

 

The pink-haired boy seemed confused. “Booze-guy?” 

“Yeah, his name was the same of the booze Ji-chan likes to give away to captains as a joke”, Luffy said and tried to remember the name. 

“Oh… you mean Captain Morgan.”

 

The people seemed to flinch. Luffy narrowed his eyes. This wasn’t a good sign. It reminded of the town, he had visited with this nice recruit-lady. The people there had been very scared when they had seen the marine symbol on the shirt of his company. In the end, his grandpa had beaten up the corrupt marine, who made the townspeople pay for everything that went wrong, with the mentor of the nice recruit-lady. So seeing the people now flinching because of the marine’s name made him feel uneasy.

 

So without meeting this marine captain Luffy had already decided that he didn’t like the man.

 

“Strange, why would the people be afraid of Captain Morgen?”, Coby wondered when they walked towards the marine base gate. “It is not always just black and white”, Luffy said, remembering uncle dice’s statement about the world. 

 

Being close to the marine base meant it was possible that he would meet one of these black sheep of the marine.

 

A sound made him turned his head to his right. There was a ladder leant against the wall and a little girl used it to climb over the wall. Luffy tilted his head. Why was she climbing over the wall like this instead of going through the gate?

 

Luffy didn’t think about it for long and started to climb the wall as well. After all, this could be interesting.

 

The girl was on a field that looked like one of these where the marine executed the bad guys who deserved it. What did the girl want there? A young child shouldn’t be there. That was what Ji-chan had said. But there was another person on the field. Tied up. The hair seemed green and on the left side of the head, something blinked.

 

“Luffy-san, don’t just disappear. Your brother is going to kill me if something…”, Coby rambled as he appeared next to Luffy, but stopped. “That is… Roronoa Zoro… Luffy-san, you have to save the girl. He will kill her!”, the pink-haired boy screeched.

 

Luffy put his hand on Coby’s mouth to shut him up. His gut feeling told him that the girl was safe. At least at the moment.

 

He watched her carefully. The girl had gotten close to the tied up man and seemed to offer him something in her hand. Luffy narrowed his eyes to see what she has in her hands. It seemed to be food.

 

Instinctively Luffy turned his head. Three marines, he guessed, entered the field. Two were dressed like the normal marines, but the third one, a blonde, wore a purple suit. He walked a bit at the front. Looked like he was important. But Luffy had a bad feeling about him.

 

“Oi, didn’t someone tell you, death is sentenced to the sum who is unallowed on the execution field and helped a sentenced worthless scum.”

 

Luffy frowned when he heard these words. On sentence and he already hated the man. This feeling only grew more when the blonde ordered to throw the little girl over the wall. He clenched his fists before he closed his eyes.

 

Luffy took a deep breath and focused. He pushed himself from the wall and caught the girl in the air. The straw-hatted boy landed on his two feet and looked at the girl in his arms. 

 

“Luffy-san, are you alright? Is the girl fine?”, Coby asked and came close to them. 

 

“Don’t worry. I’m fine. The girl seemed shocked”, Luffy said with a grin, but it disappeared when he looked at the wall. “Take care of her”, he ordered Coby and climbed over the wall. 

 

The three marines had disappeared. Good.

 

“Get lost, eyesore”, was the greeting of the tied up man when he landed on the execution field. Luffy blinked surprised but grinned. He looked to the marine base before he got closer to the green-haired person. 

 

“You are this Zoro-guy, who is feared by many people?”, Luffy tilted his head during his question. “If you really such a strong bad guy, why the humiliation stuff?”

 

“None of your business.”

 

“Makes me doubt that you are really that strong like they said”.”

 

The other snorted. “Believe what you want.” 

“If I was captured I would be free by now.” 

“Then I got more willpower for this situation than you have. Because I will survive.”

 

A grin ghosted over Luffy’s lips. He liked this guy. He should tell Ace and Law about him. 

 

“Well, then see ya.” The boy wanted to make his way back but was stopped by Zoro. 

“Can you lift this up for me?” He looked at the ground to see what the other meant. 

 

A riceball. So that was what the girl had brought to Zoro. Luffy suppressed a reaction and only fed the dirty food to the green-haired one. 

 

That Zoro also told him to thank the girl, made the straw-hatted boy grin. His decision to make Zoro join the crew became only stronger. But that had to wait. It didn’t look like Zoro would appreciate it if he was going to be rescued and then the man wouldn’t join him.

 

So as hard as it was for him, Luffy decided to wait and return to Coby and the girl. 

 

The pink-haired boy was in a panic when he landed next to him. The boy had started to imagine what Ace would do if something happened to Luffy. This made the black-haired boy laugh. 

 

“Don’t worry, Coby. Ace hasn’t tried to kill someone for ages. So he won’t start with you”, Luffy said and lifted up the girl who still seemed shocked, but mostly fine.

~

 

“So Zoro is tied up and is humiliated because he protected you?”, Coby asked Rika, the girl from the execution field. She nodded sadly.

 

So Luffy’s feeling about Zoro was right. The man was a good guy. He seemed to be like a good addition to the crew if he could convince him to join. Also, Zoro had honour. Something that was rare for people. 

 

Luffy nodded to himself.“I’ll go to…”, he started but then stopped himself when the sound of breaking dishes from the inside the restaurant could be heard. It didn’t sound like an accident.

 

The straw-hatted boy went inside quickly with Coby hot at his heels.

 

There was the blonde man who humiliated Zoro on daily bases even if he was weaker. The man who Luffy decided to hate for his arrogant, pathetic behaviour. The straw-hatted boy clenched his fists.

 

Luffy tried to control his anger. But when this (he didn’t know what to call this man but man didn’t fit) excuse bragged about executing Zoro, he lost it.

 

“Luffy-san”, the black-haired heard Coby’s warning, but it was too late.

 

Luffy’s fist had connected with bragging blonde’s cheek. His ‘opponent’ flew across the room and hit the wall.

 

“You call yourself a marine, but you have no honour. Don’t you feel ashamed of yourself?!”, Luffy asked with shaking fists. He wanted to hit the man again. Beat him if he had to.

 

Then Luffy felt Coby’s arms around his middle. Trying to hold him back. So he couldn’t hit the other any more.

 

“I’m telling my father”, the blonde shrieked. 

“Fight your own battles!”, Luffy screamed after the excuse( yeah excuse sounded good as a name) when the other fled.

 

This one wasn’t able to fight his own battle!

 

That was it. He didn’t care any longer to first check-in with Ace and Law to get their opinion about Zoro. The green-haired man was going to join him and Luffy would make sure it happened that way.

 

~*~*~  


 

Only one week left. One week and he could go back to his life drifting from town to town to get stronger and trying to finally meet this one person, who he wanted to challenge.

 

A grin ghosted over his face. By surviving this torture he would only grow stronger.

 

“I have decided that you join my crew.”

 

Oh, the eyesore from earlier was back.

 

“Don’t just decide for other people. And didn’t I tell you to get lost, eyesore?”

 

Zoro frowned annoyed when the boy didn’t even seem scared.

 

“I told you ‘See ya’ earlier. So you should have known that we would meet again.” The black-haired one tilted his head.

 

Zoro groaned and wanted to facepalm if he could. But he couldn’t say anything against this logic…

 

“Also, come on. It will be fun to have an adventure on the Grandline.”

 

Seriously? He was too old to play adventure on … Wait. What did this eyesore say? He wanted to go to the Grandline.

 

Zoro snorted. Just by the look, the other wouldn’t survive it.

 

“Ne, you are a swordsman, right? If I can get yours out of the marine base, you’ll join, okay?” Was this kid really serious?

 

“That’s blackmail!”, Zoro shouted and watched confused how the boy first took the wrong way. “The base is the other way”, the swordsman said with a sigh, closing his eyes. Why did he even correct the kid?

 

Something disturbed the air in front of him. His eyes snapped opened.

 

But there was nothing in front of him. He turned his head left and right, but the boy wasn’t in sight any longer. Zoro turned his head towards the marine base. “Did he really get into the base?”, he wondered out loud. 

 

His eyes wandered to the top of the base. Zoro widened his eyes in a slight shock. Parts of a statue, if he saw that right, were falling down and loud screams could be heard from the top. Even some shots. 

 

What was going on there? Had this black-haired boy been able to somehow get there in this short amount of time? 

 

His thoughts were interrupted when Zoro felt someone tugging on the ropes.

 

It was a pink-haired boy.

 

“Oi, go away!”, Zoro snapped at him. But the boy shook his head no. 

“I can’t. First, I can’t because these are not the Marines I believe in. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. Second, they plan to execute you. Luffy’san got mad when he heard one bragging about it and punched one of them. He is going to be in a lot of trouble I can’t help him with. But you can!”

 

Luffy? Was that the name of the black-haired boy who planned to blackmail him with his swords?

 

“But I have a deal with them…”, Zoro stopped himself. He narrowed his eyes and studied the pink-haired boy. This boy didn’t look like he lied. He looked more scared of the situation and that something happened to this Luffy-boy.

 

A bullet flew right past him. The pink-haired shrieked and cowered in fear. 

 

“Trying to free a prisoner is sentenced with death. Execute them!”

 

Zoro turned his head to see multiple guns pointed towards him and the boy. It was an entire squad and behind them, Captain Morgan.

 

It could only be the narcissistic captain himself as the marines all looked too scared to defy the man.

 

“Now!”

 

Was that really how he should die? Without ever having a chance to cross the blade with the world’s best swordsman?

 

He could feel the pink-haired boy tremble with fear close to his legs. Zoro frowned and stared at the marines.

 

If he had to die, they could at least shot him not from the side, but from the front.

 

But…

 

The Marines weren’t able to shoot them!?

 

“Sorry, that it took so long. But this excuse was too stupid to navigate me to his room to pick up your sword. But there were three and since I didn’t know which one was yours I brought all three along.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I didn't rewatch/reread the scenes. I write them from my memories and the information on one piece wiki when I look up the details of a city or a character again. Just so that you know^^
> 
> Like I said in the author note at the beginning, I thought about playing a little guessing game with you;) I have noted how to go on till a certain point in Grandline and the baselines are in the sixth chapter(still East Blue Arc). So I kinda knew how many people will be on the ship when they leave the East Blue. Also being on the ship doesn't mean that they will join the crew for sure. Just to make this clear from the start. But at the end of the East Blue Arc, there will be nine creatures on board (or does the word animated being fit more? I don't know they mean both the same in German:x). So you are allowed to guess who will be there when they leave the East Blue. Four/Five can be sure after this chapter. Two are kinda easy, but for the other two, you have to think a bit, who it could be. Just one hint for one of them, I already gave you a clue in the same sentence I gave you the number;) So happy guessing =) I'm kinda curious how many will have some right guesses about the two not so easy (one is really really tricky xD).
> 
> Also, you are allowed to guess what kind of devil fruit Luffy has. I can tell you I haven't written about it, yet. Just curious, what you guys think he has;) (a hint, it's something rather 'simple' but if you think about it somehow useful)
> 
> See you next time ;)


	4. ~Chapter 3 - A new Nakama~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How fast a month went by (and I know I upload a day early then I had written on my FF-profil, but well don't care^^). It was seriously surprising and I feel like I get kinda impatient when I write this story. I already mentioned it in an another AN that I have notes in which I already reached the Grandline and now also the New World already(the notes are mostly keywords nothing I could publish, yet). My baselines for the chapters are in chapter 7, which will be a longer one. In my plans, at the moment in chapter 9 or chapter 10 (more likely 10) will be the last chapter before they leave the East Blue. So I just hope that the chapters don't feel rushed at some point because I really really want to get to the Grandline. Because so many stuff can happen there, I'm really excited to write the stuff that's going to happen on the Grandline and what you will think about it. Please, no hype. I don't do well with too much hype, I get really conflicted about the chapters some time then...
> 
> But well I got some free time so I'm working on having a little chapter cache (can I call it that way?). Chapter 4 and 5 are already completely finished and Chapter 6 is at work. They just might change a little depending on your comments, but they are already in my word doc. Before you ask, I won't change the upload plan for this story. Because I don't want to give you chapter after chapter and then have to do a three or six months break because I lack the time to write the chapters and well... I feel kinda bad to keep you waiting that long then. So monthly updates until I know how many chapters this story will have and until I know I will be able to keep the promised dates.
> 
> Also, I may creative sometimes with pairings. But I also like to include some more unusual ideas from you guys. At the moment, I have three pairings on my mind who will appear and have some kind of influence in the story. One, I already spoiled in the first chapter. The other two... well let's just say one is directly connected to the crew (and in my plan at the moment it will be the first to appear) and the other will happen later a lot later and is not directly connected with the crew. So pairing suggestion? I'm open for nearly everything. Even if you choose a character, I have already romantic plans for, it can be possible that, if I liked the idea/concept behind it very much, I will include it as a onesided pairing or as a short-time relationship(don't know the ideas I will get^^). You can give a suggestion until I say the story is close to the end or when I think it won't fit any longer.
> 
> But enough rambling. I also think some of you skip my rambles because it gets too long xD I'm sorry about that, but I have a tendency to write more than needed sometimes to explain something^^'

Luffy grinned brightly at Zoro. Getting the swords was to easy. This excuse of a man had also been at the top of the marine base. Since the blonde had been the one who was to blame for Zoro’s arrest, he should know where the sword of the green-haired one was. And Luffy had his “stupid luck” like Law always called it again.

 

He had borrowed the blonde as his guide to the other’s room to fetch Zoro’s swords. Luffy hadn’t cared that he had accidentally knocked the excuse of a man out when he entered the room. It had made the straw-hatted boy cringed. It had looked like one of these Nobel rooms, he had visited with Ji-chan. He had felt an urge to destroy it. But he hadn’t come for that.

 

The three swords, he had taken with him, had seemed all out of place. So one or two definitely belonged to Zoro. Perhaps the other would be more pleased to join them if Luffy offered the other swords as some sort of buffer.

 

Then knocking the marines over who seemed ready to shoot Zoro and Coby was the easiest thing of the whole stunt. These guys weren’t even close to the level of the ones which worked directly under Ji-chan. Maybe that’s the reason why Ji-chan and his men were mostly in the Grandline.  

 

So now Luffy was standing in front of the green-haired swordsman who just stared at him. The boy tilted his head a bit. Did he fetch the wrong swords or was something wrong with the swords? There hadn’t been any other swords and the idiot had better not lie to him. They also didn’t look damaged. But then Zoro started to grin.

 

“They are all three mine”, the swordsman said.

“Okay. Don’t know how you fight with three, but here you go. So you join me, right?” Luffy looked at the other curiously while he waited for an answer.

 

“Attack them!”

 

“Give me my swords and you will see my answer.”

 

Luffy grinned. He liked this answer.

 

The ropes were gone faster than he could look. But he was sure Zoro had cut them the sword, Luffy should hold to close to the mouth. Th swordsman carried it in his mouth. So cool. He also blocked all the marines at the same time. Yep, Ace and Law would agree that Zoro would be a great addition to the crew.

 

“Fine, brat. I’ll join you. But if you get in my way of reaching my goal, I’ll cut you down.” Luffy giggled while Coby shrieked slightly and dodged behind him.

“A goal. That means you have a dream. That’s great. Does it fit with reaching the end of the Grandline?” He looked curiously at Zoro. What could be this man’s goal?

 

Did the other smirk? It was a bit hard to tell with the sword in Zoro’s mouth.

“I’m going to be the world’s best swordsman.”

Luffy grinned. “That’s a fitting dream for a member of a crew which will reach the top. Now dodge, Zoro”, he chirped cheerfully and jumped to attack.

 

He used his hands to push him slightly higher from the swordsman’s back to kick the marine in the face. With each kick, he got a little higher and closer to the axe-guy until he was able to punch him directly in the face. Sending this one flying to the wall.

 

“Captain Morgan!”

 

The marines seemed a bit lost without their captain. Or was that relief in some of their eyes? Well, Luffy could only grin about easy this had been.  

 

“S-Stop right where you are or I’ll shoot.”

 

The straw-hatted boy turned his head to see who had spoken. There was the blonde idiot holding a gun to Coby’s head.

 

Luffy tilted his head. Hadn’t he knocked the excuse of a man out?

 

“Don’t worry about me, Luffy-san. Just do whatever you had planned.” Coby’s voice sounded a bit shaken. But there was something in his eyes that told Luffy the pink-haired one was serious. So Coby had grown a bit of a backbone while he had been with them.

 

“Okay”, Luffy simply stated and took a little step towards the duo.

 

He had noticed that the booze-guy wanted to attack him, but Zoro seemed already prepared to take care of him.

 

The blonde was shaken and threatening him again that he would shoot. This would be interesting. Luffy sidestepped so that Zoro could directly attack the marine captain.

 

A grin appeared on the black-haired boy’s face. Now would be the perfect timing to do this. He had wanted to say it for a long time.

 

“Ne, are you ready to bet your life on it?”

 

This seemed to confuse the idiot. But also the whole body started to shake more. Did he scare the idiot with the question?

 

“Luffy, don’t be an idiot and asked people that question if you already can see that they are not ready”, Ace scolded him. His big brother appeared with Law behind Coby. His step-brother/cousin didn’t look very happy.

 

“Hi, Ace. Hi, Torao”, Luffy just chirped happily and speeded over knocking the blonde idiot, who had shrieked when he noticed Ace and Law, out in progress.

 

Law groaned and flicked his forehead. “Don’t go against a whole marine base yourself”, the surgeon scolded. Luffy pushed his lips slightly forward.

 

“But I wasn’t by myself. I have Zoro with me. Zoro is really strong and he is our new Nakama”, he said with a grin while he pointed at the swordsman who had beaten the corrupt marine captain and was coming towards them.

 

“Zoro, this is my big brother Ace and my step-brother/cousin Torao. Ace, Torao, that’s Zoro, he is our new Nakama”, Luffy introduced them happily.

“It’s Law. Call me Torao and I will dissect you”, Law threatened while Ace looked quite curiously.

 

“Roronoa Zoro, huh. So that’s the pirate hunter demon we heard about”, his big brother said. Luffy chuckled when he that Zoro only had lifted an eyebrow at the two older black-haired men.

 

“Well, if Luffy says he should join, it will probably be fine”, Ace shrugged and grinned. But Law studied the green-haired one a bit sceptical.

“Before you join for real, one important question. Can you swim?”, the oldest of the three black-haired ones asked.

 

Luffy laughed out loud about Zoro’s surprised face.

 

~*~*~

 

What did he only signed up for when he said he would join? His well… crewmates were an interesting bunch but they also seemed to attract chaos. Even when they were on the sea and no other except them around.

 

He had already jumped into the ocean ten times to fish out the youngest, Luffy. Zoro highly guessed that they had a rope around the boy before he joined because neither Law nor Ace could swim. The last crew member was a talking polar bear named Bepo who could swim but couldn’t dive very well.

 

Seriously how did they intend to travel on when their future-captain liked to jump in the water without being able to swim and also without being able to learn to swim. Something he only learnt after some trips into the ocean.

 

After the first two times, Luffy went overboard, Zoro had offered to teach the boy the basics of how to swim. So he would be able to stay over the water until they let a rope.

 

Luffy had only stared at him confused before he stated that he wasn’t able to learn how to swim. This was the point when Law explained that no one of the three black-haired crew members would be able to learn how to swim as they all had eaten a devil fruit.

 

A fact that should be kept a secret until they are on the Grandline and they only wanted to use in the East Blue against other Devil Fruit users.

 

Zoro didn’t really care about the explanation why they intend to handle it that way. Law seemed like a person who wouldn’t do anything without a good reason and the most responsible one from the others. So he was going to trust the surgeon, who was at the moment the captain of the crew.

 

That was also a detail that surprised Zoro a bit. The swordsman had guessed that Luffy would be the captain as both older one listened to the younger one when the swordsman was introduced as their new Nakama.

 

“There is a promise we have to fulfil at first before we go full force after what we really want. Then Luffy will be our captain official. Because then we will go after the One Piece. Hope that you are ready for that when the time comes.”

 

That was the explanation he got. The One Piece. That meant they would become pirates at one point. He didn’t know when. But he got a feeling that with Luffy on board. It would be sooner as planned.

 

Even if the two older one seemed protective over the straw-hatted boy.

 

Especially Ace. Luffy’s older brother and first mate(now and later) had corned him with some question that did confirm that the cowboy-hatted one had a brother-complex. The black-haired had even threatened him that he would be burned alive if made one wrong move at Luffy, betrayed him, hurt him or just look at the boy wrong.   

 

Seriously, the complex was a bit annoying. But Zoro could see why. Luffy was easy-going, cheerful and slightly naive, even if Law had hinted that the boy also had a manipulative, devilish side. Something that sounded a bit unbelievable if Luffy hadn’t tried to blackmail him into joining the crew.

 

“Ready for some medical questions?”

 

Law interrupted his thoughts. Zoro looked up. The black-haired one had some paper and a pen in his hand.

 

“Why do you need that?”

“I mostly agreed to come with them because they will need someone who knows about medicine and can patch them up. So I’m in charge of everyone’s health who will travel with us and also in charge of the medicine and suppressant”, Law stated simply.

 

Zoro sighed and nodded.

 

“Also now would be the best time as Ace had fallen asleep again. Luffy is napping with him and Bepo is focused on the map to plan our route. So there is quite and no comments from the others.”

 

So that was the main reason why this happened now. Well, there was nothing better to do. Maybe sleep or he could train. But better to do this now before the timing could be worse.

 

“Just ask already what you want to know?”

 

A grin ghosted over Law’s face and the other sat down next to him. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see how the surgeon wrote ‘Roronoar Zoro’ at the top of the paper.

 

“Age?”

“Nineteen.”

“First and second gender?”

Zoro looked at Law. The first part of the question had to be a joke. But no. The surgeon had a serious expression. “Male. No second gender is known.” He could hear the other sigh but didn’t comment on it. “Before you asked, I have no interested in this second gender topic. I just hope these two years get over quick and I stay a Beta. It always sounded the easiest”, Zoro added. He could see a smirk on Law’s face.

 

“You’re right there. It is the easiest. But you said it. You still have two years until it is final. In that two years, I want you to immediately inform me if you feel some changes. Changes that can’t explain via training or wounds or medicine”, the surgeon said. Zoro nodded.

 

“When you ask about the second gender… with the way Ace acts… is Luffy an Omega? I mean, Luffy doesn’t act like an Omega… but with Ace’s behaviour.”

Law lifted his hand to stop him. “No, Luffy is a Beta. Well, he is now. Luffy became seventeen a few days before we started our journey from Dawn Island. So there are still four years left until we know if that is final or not. But I can see why you are thinking that Luffy is an Omega. Ace does have serious brother-complex. Pray that you never see his full brother-complex. But since you mentioned Luffy being an Omega. Would that be a problem if the captain presented as an Omega?”

 

Zoro opened his mouth to say that he didn’t care about the second gender stuff again, but was interrupted when he heard Luffy SCOLDING Ace for saying something to Bepo.

 

His mouth hung open. He was sure that he had misheard the tone and words Luffy used. He couldn’t really imagine that the straw-hatted boy scolded his big brother.  

 

The surgeon next to him groaned slightly before he turned his head. “Oi, Ace, leave Bepo alone!”, Law shouted.

“What exactly is Bepo? You can’t tell me you taught a polar bear to wear clothes, talk and navigate, right?”, Zoro said carefully.

 

Law threw a paper ball in Ace’s direction before he turned to him again. “Bepo is a polar bear mink. Minks can be described as humanoids with animal features. It is rare to see one as they tend to stay on their island which is located in the New World, the second part of the Grandline.“

 

“Wait, the bear is from the Grandline?”

 

“Don’t call Bepo a bear. He has a name”, Luffy, who suddenly appeared next to him, scolded him and poked his side. Zoro also felt a glare from Law’s side. What exactly…

 

“Ignore it. Luffy and Law have some complexes if Bepo is involved”, Ace said and hit his younger brother lightly. Okay… so Luffy and Law had a Bepo-complex, Ace had a brother-complex… now, what kind of complex would Bepo have?

 

“That is for drawing on my face”, the cowboy-hatted one told his little brother and looked angry at him. The freckles on Ace’s seemed a bit darker than before. It looked like someone used a marker to paint them black.  

 

“Torao, Ace is being a meanie again. I didn’t draw on his face”, Luffy whined. Out of the corner of his eyes, Zoro noted how Law had bent his head so his face was shadowed.

 

“Shut up both of you or I will throw the meat overboard.”

 

“Not the meat!” Both brothers looked shocked. So they both liked meat very much?

 

“People on a little boat sighted”, Bepo’s voice stopped whatever chaos was going on again and had all four of them at the railing to look.

 

Luffy nearly jumped overboard again, if Ace hadn’t held the boy back. The older one hugged the little one to stop the smaller probably from doing something stupid. The anger towards Luffy seemed forgotten in favour of keeping him safe.

 

“They don’t look friendly. Do you think they would be more friendly if we party with them?”, Luffy suggested innocently.

“No, we won’t party with them. The only thing they get is their asses kicked”, Ace grumbled and laid his chin on Luffy’s head.

 

Zoro narrowed his eyes and saw a jolly roger. “They belong to the crew of a big shot in the East Blue if I remember right. The bounty was a bit over 10,000,000 Berry”, the swordsman said. Trying to remember the few bounties which interested him because they meant he would be able to pay the repairments of his sword and food and so on.

 

The idiots didn’t look strong. So a fight could be a waste of time.

 

“A bounty around 10,000,000 Berry is low for someone who wants to survive the Grandline”, Law said. “Well, if they attack, we shouldn’t have any problems with them. I saw that the man-lady has a bounty around 7,000,000 Berry and the fight against her didn’t last a minute. So even if we met this captain we should be safe”, Ace guessed with a yawn.

 

A grin crept on Zoro’s face. Looked like he made a good decision to with them. It would definitely be fun. Also, he would be able to grow stronger and met the man who he had to fight.

 

“If I remember right from the short look over the bounty in the East Blue. Don Krieg with 17,000,000 and Arlong 20,000,000 have the highest one of all wanted men who are known to be in the East Blue at the moment”, the swordsman leant against the railing and watched with only mild interest how Luffy and Ace argued if they should fire the cannon.

 

The three men on the other boat seemed to notice them now and seemed to want to attack them. A loud boom and the other ship was blown apart.

“Hey, I wanted to beat them in a fist fight”, Luffy pouted. Ace just patted his hair.

“Next time. I bet they weren’t even worse the time. Now they are swimming and, Luffy, look positive. Maybe some fish will come to eat them and then we can eat the fish”, the first mate said.

 

The bounties didn’t seem too interested them really. Well, for some reason it didn’t surprise him. Their topic was food now. Food seemed to be one of the most interesting topics for the two brothers.

 

But Law seemed more interested.

 

“Arlong? Don’t tell me you mean Arlong the Saw or also called Saw-Tooth Arlong. The man is worth more than 20,000,000 Berry. There has to be something fishy about him if the number is correct”, the surgeon said while the brothers started to laugh.

 

“He said there is something fishy about a Fishman.”

 

Law hit both of them on the head. Zoro must have had a slightly confused look on his face because the surgeon explained: “Fishman normally live on the Grandline. Well, to be more precise in the Grandline under the Red Line. They are quite strong. Much stronger than a normal human and if you fight against one make sure that you don’t do it underwater. Because there they are nearly unbeatable without the right preparations.”

 

Now that sounded very interesting. Fighting with a Fishman sounded like a really good training.

 

“The problem with Arlong is 20,000,000 Berry isn’t much. If I remember right, he did belong to the Sun Pirates. A pirate crew which travelled on the Grandline and which was quite famous for taking out entire marine ships on their own. The captain was a Fishman named Fisher Tiger. His bounty had been 230,000,000 Berry. But he died around ten years ago. The other one of the Sun Pirates and now Shichibukai is Jinbe. He has a frozen bounty from 250,000,000 Berry. In comparison to that Arlong’s bounty seems low. Too low if he was with them and if my information is correct he was one of the merciless fighters and even was in Impel Down for a short time”, Law mumbled.

 

Zoro knitted his brows. Why should they be worried about that? People could be on a strong crew without getting high bounties. He didn’t see this first hand but he had heard friends talking about bounties. Arlong and his crew were a good example. Because there were no bounties known from his crewmember. At least, as far as Zoro knew.

 

“Do you know where Arlong exactly is?”, Ace asked. Zoro could only shake his head.

“No. I only found people with bounties randomly most of the time. I did learn the one who had high bounties so I could fight them to get better. I often only turned the people in when I needed money”, he said as an explanation.

 

“Don’t worry, Torao. I’m sure we will find out if you are worried”, Luffy chirped.

“I don’t think you should say it in that voice. It only gives the feeling that this is really something to worry about…”, Law said, but the straw-hatted boy ignored the statement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Zoro is part of the crew. Because well, I like Zoro and I needed someone strong to fish Ace, Luffy or Law out when they fall into the water by accident. The thing that Bepo can't dive well is a bit made up from the facts I have found about polar bears. They are good swimmers but they only dive for around two minutes and then it is rarely deeper than two metres. Therefore, Bepo's ability to fish the three out in case something happens is limited. I hope you can live with that explanation^^
> 
> Also in this chapter marks the first where I answer an opened question I didn't answer, yet, because of well "spoilers".
> 
>  **Lex (AO3):** Who’s the captain in this situation?   
> _Answer:_ At the moment, Law is the captain until they either fulfil their promise to reach the New World without getting into trouble because Law is the responsible one. But if the trouble finds them and they become pirates earlier then Luffy will become captain.
> 
> Hope this answers your question ;)
> 
> So until next month on this story or on a Oneshot, I will upload until then.


	5. ~Chapter 4 – Buggy the red nose baka~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is next chapter. A bit earlier than intended, but well... the reason is in the next paragraph. Please read it, I know skipping is interesting sometimes, but please read it and if you want also please give me your opinion.
> 
> Can I say I really start to dislike writing fighting scenes? They really trouble me... Because well, I'm afraid of making them too strong (especially during the East Blue Arc) or making them appear too weak... Also, sometimes I just sit/lay there and think about how the fight should go to make it interesting for you for an hour without a typing a sentence. So would it bother you if I cut them short sometimes(more like most of the fights)? Just curious. There are some small fights in this chapter and in chapter 5(little one) and in chapter 6(a little longer but not too much, I think). The two scenes in the next chapters weren't in the baselines as I wasn't sure, yet, how to write them. But since they are now written in my document they are staying. Because I already worked on them long enough and don't want to delete it. So yeah, let me know if you guys would be fine when I sometimes cut fights down to a few sentences. I'll definitely make it up to you somehow (maybe longer chapters or maybe some little with ideas I wanted to use but decided not to).
> 
> Also, before the chapter, I have another question. I need someone who would be able to do their jolly roger for me. I have two similar ideas on my mind but I suck at drawing. I even have trouble drawing a clean circle without using tools. So yeah, anyone up for helping? I would really like to use the jolly roger as cover for this fanfic. So if you are interested and can draw/sketch, just write me a private message on ff dot net. Because with the pm-system it would be easier to communicate and also, it won't spoiler the other too much. So, I'm sorry for the AO3-only reader who can draw.
> 
> So now enough talking. Enjoy the chapter ;)

Ace glared at his precious baby brother. Why was Luffy so fixed on a musician to be their next crew member? A cook or a ship-wright would be better as the next addition to the crew.

 

They couldn’t convince Law to cook all the time (okay, maybe Luffy could but he wasn’t going to discuss this) and well the rest of them didn’t know how to cook or it tasted bad if they tried. So a cook would be great.

 

Also, the ship was bound to get damaged when they went to the Grandline because of the weather and the stronger pirates. Small damages they would be able to repair, but it wouldn’t stay that way. So they would need someone who was able to repair their still nameless ship.

 

No, he wasn’t going to follow his baby brother’s suggestion to call the ship Shippy. That was a stupid name. Their ship needed a cool name. But that wasn’t important at the moment.

 

“But pirates like to party. So we need a musician when we finally hoist the colour”, Luffy said and crossed his arms with a pout on his lips.

 

Ace suppressed a groan and looked away. He would only say yes if he looked longer at his baby brother. The older one of the two brothers started to hate the fact that Luffy, despite showing off a simpleness and innocent most of the time, had developed a little manipulative devilish side during the time they travelled with their shitty grandpa. Because of this side, it was harder for him sometimes to tell his baby brother no. Especially, if Luffy used his brain.

 

“Listen, Luffy, we will get a musician, I swear. But you know that we can’t convince Law to cook all the time and neither you nor Zoro nor Bepo nor I are able to cook something eatable and healthy. Therefore we should look for a cook who can fight and maybe also is able to swim, so Zoro isn’t the only one who has to jump into the water everytime you decided it would be great idea to fall into the ocean”, Ace said slowly and carefully thinking about his words (something he didn’t very often).

 

He glanced at his baby brother out of the corner of his eyes. There was a tilting of the head. Good. That meant Luffy was thinking about it.

 

But before his baby brother could say something, Law appeared next to them. A vein was slightly popping on the surgeon’s forehead. This was bad.

 

“You two seriously need to control your eating habits. We need to dock again because you have eaten everything except the stupid bread!”, Law said angrily.

 

Luffy and Ace looked both with shocked faces at the surgeon. This had to be a joke.

 

“No meat?!”, they said in unison and that got them a hit from Law.

 

Their stepbrother could say what he wanted. He definitely learned their grandpa’s fist of love. Otherwise, it wouldn’t hurt like it did.

 

“Do we still have booze?”, Ace heard Zoro asking. For some reason, he felt that this was a bad timing to ask that question.

 

He found himself right when he could see how Law’s face seemed to have become darker. Oh shit… that wasn’t good. He needed a good distraction quickly. An angry Law was something they didn’t need.

 

Ace picked up his baby brother. If Luffy pulled the right face, they could save their lives.

 

“Come on, Law, Luffy needs food. He still is shorter and thinner than us and you know how tall shitty gramps is. Luffy is so small compared to him. We need to feed Luffy so he is able to grow big and strong”, Ace said hoping that this would convince Law to take pity on them and stopped looking like he wanted to cut them apart any longer.

 

Luffy blinked innocently like he didn’t understand what exactly was going on. Good. This expression of his baby brother would poke Law’s weird omega-mother-complex. Well, that was the ideal plan.

 

“Land sighted.”

 

Bepo’s shout made them all look up to the Crow’s nest. Then the realisation seemed to dawn on the crew members. They quickly went towards the railing. Ace still carried Luffy. Just in case that Law was still angry.

 

“I also see a big ship on the shore”, the polar bear mink said.

 

“Do you see the flag?” “A jolly roger with a big red point on the skull in the area where a nose should be.”

“That’s the same jolly roger the three men had on their ship”, Zoro said and had his hand already on one of his swords.

 

“We will dock elsewhere and then look around the town for supplies. But we stay together in case of a fight breaking out. Bepo, you will stay on the ship to protect it”, Law ordered. The voice lacked any anger. Looked like the island saved from the surgeon’s anger.

 

“Ay, ay”, Bepo shouted and climbed down from the Crow’s nest to take control of the ship’s helmet.

 

“Ne, Law, when a fight breaks out. Are we allowed to use it?”, Ace asked with a grin.

 

Law sighed and looked at them. “Only if it is needed.”

 

Now that sounded like they would get some fun.

 

~*~*~

 

Law swore to himself that he would look for a necklace with sea stone and a rope to make sure that Luffy wouldn’t be able to run off any more.

 

Seriously, the boy had too much-unused energy. Maybe… he should allow the little one to use his devil fruit powers in their room on their ship. But it was possible that it was too cramped. Even if Luffy was very small in his smallest form.

 

He sighed. They had to hurry and get on the Grandline. Sure their opponents were stronger than in the East Blue, but devil fruit users wouldn’t attract that much attention as here where people thought devil fruits were a myth.

 

But now was not the time to think about it.

 

Ace, Zoro and Law had to search for Luffy who had run off shortly after they had docked.

 

Law cursed the speed the straw-hatted boy possessed. How was it even possible for Luffy to be that fast without using Soru? Yes, he knew that Luffy didn’t use it. Otherwise, the boy would be a lot faster than he already was.

 

So the surgeon walked the short way on the shore to the town with Ace and Zoro. When the town came slowly into view, he was surprised that there was no typical sound was heard. It was too quiet for a town.

 

There wasn’t a single person on the street when they entered the town. The houses seemed fine except some of them which were completely destroyed by something he couldn’t conclude, yet. But Law had a strong suspicion that the pirate ship in the harbour had something to do with the destroyed parts and the dead town.

 

“Is that normal for a town that dead?”, Ace suddenly asked and pointed to, what seemed to be the middle of the city where a big circus tent stood on top of a building. If Law concentrated on his hearing sense, he could hear music coming from there. So the town wasn’t as dead as it seemed.

 

“For a ghost town like this. It isn’t normal. But let’s just find Luffy and grab some supplies so we can leave”, Law said and closed his eyes to focus. It would be easier and faster to find Luffy that way. It didn’t take him long to notice the presence of the boy.

 

But there was another one. Weaker, a lot weaker than Luffy’s, and an animal-like presence close by the boy. But they didn’t feel dangerous. Law opened his eyes and turned the way he felt the presences. They better hurried and find Luffy before trouble would find them.

 

“That way”, Law said and took the lead.

“How can you be so sure?”, Zoro asked.

“Haki. Don’t worry, we will explain later. Just not now”, Law explained. He was sure that Ace had a grin on his face. So the slightly smaller black-haired one seemed to be happy already about the possibility to teach their crew members about Haki.

 

Poor Zoro… the only way Ace knew to teach Haki was Garp’s way of teaching them Haki.

 

Law took a side glance at the green-haired swordsman. Just from the look, he would guess that the other was interested in Haki. Well, it would fit, as Zoro seemed to do and try a lot of different ways to become stronger without using dirty tricks.

 

With the help of his Kenbunshoku Haki, they found Luffy quite quickly. The boy was in front of a destroyed pet-shop if the shield close by was anything to go with.

 

Next to Luffy was a white dog who was fed by an older man with glasses and armour chest-plates. Both the man and the dog looked wounded.

 

“Luffy, you idiot. Don’t just run off on your own”, Ace scolded his baby brother and bonked him lightly on the head. Law narrowed his eyes and studied Luffy carefully. The boy didn’t react like he usually would. He didn’t call Ace a meanie or said that Ace was stingy.

 

“Ne, Ace, Zoro, Law?”

 

Okay, now the surgeon was worried. It was rare for Luffy to call him by his name. He only did it when he had one of his serious moments.

 

“Can we kick these pirates out of town so that the people can return and to avenge the destruction of Chouchou’s treasure?”

 

The straw hat shadowed Luffy’s eyes. But now Law know just from the voice the younger one used that it was one these rare serious moments of Luffy again.

 

“Boy, you don’t have to do that. This group is dangerous. You already did enough by saving Chouchou and me”, the man said clearly worried.

 

Why wasn’t he surprised that Luffy would fight to avenge the treasure of a dog… The kid really loved animals too much.

 

The dog had stood up and barked. Looked like it wanted to fight, too.

 

“No, you should rest, Chouchou. Don’t worry, Torao, Ace and Zoro are with me. So we will beat them. I’m just sorry that there was nothing we could rescue from your treasure except the pack of dog food”, Luffy said and caressed the dog’s head, before his little step-brother/cousin stood up.

 

Law felt himself nodding. He knew that Luffy wouldn’t leave the town now without fighting the group. That wasn’t Luffy’s way to just go away if someone’s treasure wasn’t treated the way it should be.

 

“They are in this circus tent in the middle, aren’t they?”, Ace asked with a devilish grin. Looked like the older version of their future captain needed to blow off some steam, too.

 

“You can’t fight against Buggy. He has a devil fruit. They are real. I saw him stabbing a person in the back with his hand when he stood metres away.”

 

“Huh, so we are allowed to use it, too. That would only be fair to return the favour if he decided to use it against us”, Ace said and Law heard Luffy cracking his knuckles.

 

“Don’t worry about us. Just make sure that you are somewhere safe outside the town. Just in case something happens we couldn’t predict. Also, if it is fine with you, after the fight, we would like to stock up our supplies. Help is appreciated later”, Law said and waved his hand as he followed Luffy who had already decided which way.

 

~*~*~

 

The group of four came to stop in front of the building with the circus tent on top. Luffy could hear loud circus music.

 

“Great, I should have known. Only a circus-themed crew would use a red-nose on their jolly roger”, Law grumbled.

“Come on, Law. It won't be a kids-show if we entered. So you don’t have to worry about getting a cake in your face”, Ace teased.

 

Luffy blended their biggering out and looked up. To go the direct way to attack them sounded good. But his plan was stopped when a pirate came out of the building.

 

The man grumbled something. He stopped when he saw them.

 

“Tell your captain that he should leave the town otherwise we will kick his ass out”, Luffy said cracking his knuckles. To prepare himself but also to look intimidating. He saw Ace and Sabo doing that when they were younger.

 

The man just stared at them for a minute or two before he burst out into laughter. “You guys beating Captain Buggy?” The pirate nearly choked on his laughter, but he became quieter when he saw Zoro. So Zoro’s bounty hunter reputation seemed to be scary enough to make this person take them a bit more seriously. But still not enough.

 

“Ace, light it up”, Luffy commanded.

“See it as done”, his big brother said. He felt how Ace stepped next to him and made a gun with his fingers. His big brother shot a little fire bullet that flew right beside the pirate’s ear, who shrieked in shock of the sudden heat, into the building.

 

A loud sound was heard and the building started to tremble.

 

“Looks like I hit a bulls-eye without even trying”, Ace said with a grin on his face.

 

“Who and where is the punk who did that?”

 

A clown appeared on the rooftop. He wore a captain hat and a captain coat. But he didn’t feel like a captain in Luffy’s opinion.

 

“Oi, tell your captain to get out of town, big red-nose idiot”, Luffy said with crossed arms.

“Who are you calling a big red-nose idiot, brat?! I’m the great Captain Buggy”, the clown shouted.

 

Luffy tilted his head. The facial expression and the anger reminded him a bit of Dadan when Ace, Sabo and Luffy had made chaos again.

 

“If you are the captain, then come down and fight us, red-nose idiot”, Ace said. Looked like his big brother was annoyed with the clown. Law didn’t look much happier. More like he was seconds away from taking the clown’s heart to make him suffer just for being a clown.

 

“I’ll handle them, Captain Buggy”, a new voice said and a man on a unicycle jumped down from the rooftop. A sword pointed towards him. But the slash was intercepted by Zoro.

 

“Don’t just waste our time”, the swordsman said and turned his right hand a bit to make the acrobat back away.

“Pirate Hunter Roronar Zoro. Are you here to take our captain’s bounty?”

 

“I’m here because my captain decided to kick you out of town. I don’t care about the red-nose idiot’s bounty”, Zoro growled with his third sword in his mouth.

 

“Can you handle him alone, Zoro?”, Luffy asked. A nod was the only answer he got. But it was the only one he needed.

 

“Yosh, Ace, Torao, that red-nose idiot is mine. Don’t get involved”, the straw-hatted boy said while he tapped his foot lightly on the ground. His eyes were fixed on the other captain.

 

Too fast for the others, Luffy made up his way and landed a kick directly in the clown’s face. He supported his body with his hands on the edge of the rooftop before he pushed himself slightly so that he landed on his feet on the rooftop.

 

“Captain Buggy!”

 

“Why are we always dealing with people who scream their captain’s name when their captain is hit by someone?”, Ace asked when he appeared next to him. Probably making sure that no one of the crew members on the rooftop would interfere with the fight between Luffy and the red-nose idiot. Law was mostly doing the same in front of the building for Zoro.

 

“I don’t care about their behaviour. I just want to kick them out of town”, Luffy said and watched how the clown got up again.

 

“I’ll show you brat that you shouldn’t mess with great Captain Buggy”, the clown shouted and then his body split into two halves.

 

The upper half was flying towards Luffy and Ace.

 

The boy just dodged it while his big brother toyed with the clown.

 

“You know. You are not the only with devil fruit abilities”, Ace said clearly amused when flames were dancing on his body where wounds should be.

 

This seemed to shock the clown. So the other had never thought that there would be other devil fruit users? Well, good for them. Luffy used the shocking moment to kick the clown where it hurts.

 

A loud screech reached his ears. So even if their opponent split his body, he was still able to feel what happened to the other body parts.

 

Sweet, Luffy grabbed one foot, threw the shoe away and started to tickle the clown. The red-nose idiot started to laugh.

 

“You know that’s not the normal way to fight, Luffy”, Ace said and dodged a slash from a crew member.

"But he isn't a normal opponent. So it's fine when he leaves the town with his crew", Luffy shrugged and continued to tickle the foot of the clown.

 

The straw-hatted boy was surprised to suddenly see how Ace stopped moving and a sword went through his big brother.

 

“We could play baseball with him if he splits enough”, the older black-haired one suggested.

“Baseball? Yeah, that sounds good”, Luffy cheered before pulled on the foot in his hand. “Oi, big red-nose idiot. Spilt more so we can play baseball with you.”

 

~*~*~

 

Law was annoyed. Most of the crew members weren’t worthy of a fight. But there were many of them. It got really annoying.

 

Especially, since the acrobat, who introduced himself as Buggy’s first mate Cabaji, lacked any pride. The man wasn’t fighting an honourable fight, which would be normal between two swordsmen who were proud to call themselves that.

 

The idiot had ordered his men to attack them to leave openings in their defence for him. This was some coward tactic.

 

This strategy may work with weaker people. But it wouldn’t work on Zoro and him.

 

Law felt a grin ghosting over his face. They wouldn’t be fast enough to hit them. Not if he used Haki and played a bit with his devil fruit. When he had noticed this strategy, the surgeon had asked Zoro to trust him.

 

A room around them was all he needed. Every opponent became a toy as soon as he entered. Law could cut them apart or open and switched them around as much as he like and as long as he could.

 

But the surgeon was careful to leave the acrobat out. Zoro had said that he would be fine to fight against Buggy’s first mate one on one.

 

It bothered Law a bit that he used his devil fruit ability. They had wanted to use them as less as possible and now he was using it nearly to his limits. But he really wanted to make sure that no one interfered with Zoro’s fight.

 

“Get him, Richie!”

 

A new voice could be heard and he saw a big lion jumping towards Zoro and him.

 

“Shambles”, the surgeon mumbled and switched him and Zoro with two little stones to avoid a direct confrontation with the beast.

 

“Nice trick. But I, beast tamer Mohji, will defeat you because Cabaji clearly isn’t able to do that”, a man with white hair said. Law frowned. Mohji was on the lion’s head.

 

This would be an opponent more suited for Ace or Luffy who both liked to fight big animals and would try to eat them after they won (their/his idiotic grandpa/granduncle would do the same).

 

But before another attack could be launched someone screamed and a short man flew over their heads far far away.

 

“Oi, catch”, Luffy shouted from above and threw a bag at the man called Mohji.

“You’re captain split apart enough that we could play baseball with him. In the bag are the missing body parts. But I would say that you better start searching for him before your captain falls into the water”, Ace said with an evil grin on his lips.

 

“Captain Buggy!” The whole enemy crew shouted and started to run towards their ship. Probably trying to get their captain as fast as possible.

 

Luffy and Ace jumped down from the building. Both had a slight grin on their face. But Luffy’s didn’t look very happy. “Luffy?”

“Nothing… I had just hoped that I could hit the lion with the bag hard enough to knock him out. Because he was the one who destroyed Chouchou’s treasure”, Luffy mumbled.

 

Law sighed. The little one could be a strange one when someone’s treasure or dream was involved.

 

Ace flipped the straw hat from Luffy’s head and ruffled the black hair. “You did what you said. You made the bad pirates go away. So everything is going to be fine, Luffy”, the logia user said.

 

“Ace is right. The people can return and can try to repair their houses and also Chouchou’s treasure”, Law added. Zoro also nodded in agreement even if the green-haired swordsman looked a bit unhappy how his fight went.

 

“You brats really made them leave”, the mayor suddenly appeared with more people behind him and Chouchou.

 

The white dog jumped Luffy and licked the boy’s face.

 

“You don’t need to thank me… I couldn’t do much for your treasure”, the straw-hatted boy mumbled and patted the dog’s head.

 

“Oi, kid, you four did enough and Chouchou and I would most likely be dead if you haven’t come along”, the mayor said and the people behind him thanked them loudly.

 

Law felt himself grin. He was sure that he heard the youngest one whine: “I don’t want to be a hero…”

 

Something he could only chuckle about.

 

~*~*~

 

“Teach me the basics about Haki”, Zoro said and looked at Law.

 

Ace had fallen asleep again in the crow’s nest. Luffy and Bepo were playing with Chouchou.

 

 The dog seemed to have taken a liking in their future-captain and had followed them. He had also jumped the boy.

 

After a conversation with the mayor, Chouchou had become some kind of a member of their crew. Well more a mascot. Also, the dog slept in Luffy’s hammock because the boy liked to cuddle.

 

Law looked up from Luffy’s, Bepo’s and Chouchou’s jumping around to him with a lifted eyebrow.

 

“You used this Haki-thing in the fight against the crew members and I don’t mean this blue sphere and the things that happen inside it”, Zoro said and sat down next to the surgeon who sighed.

 

“Normally, I would wait with explaining it, but… well, it will be helpful if you at least know the Haki types at first. There are three different kinds of Haki. Two are able to achieve with training. The training is different for each type to perfect it. The third version of Haki is something you are born with. Otherwise, you can’t unlock it. The one, I used, is the Kenbunshoku Haki or simple Observation Haki. It is helpful to predict your opponent’s attack and also to find people. That’s the reason I was able to find Luffy rather quickly”, Law explained.

 

Zoro nodded to show understood this form of Haki. It sounded useful. Especially the way this blue sphere seemed to work.

 

“The other one, which everyone is able to learn, is Busoshoku Haki or Armament Haki. It can be used as an armour around chosen parts for example arms and hands. Some people are also able to coat their whole body with Haki. It can also be used on swords and other weapons. The most notable thing about this Haki is also the possibility to hurt Logia users. It can be used in a defence way but also in an offence way. I guess on the next island when there aren’t many people close by you could spare with Luffy to see the defence options of this Haki in action”, Law said.

 

“Why are you trying to keep low? Just from the Powerlevel, I would say that at least you and Ace would have taken out Buggy’s crew alone. Well, you did as Luffy was only dealing with Buggy and I was mostly fighting against this idiot on the unicycle” Zoro said. “Because we promised to stay off the radar of some people. Also, it helps the crew member, we pick up, to grew stronger a bit before they are confronted with the real trouble which we will find on the Grandline”, the surgeon simply stated and stood up.

 

Zoro nodded. He said he was going to be the strongest swordsman in the world. So learning Haki would help him on his way.

 

His eyes were on Law who went over to Luffy and Bepo. Law, Ace and Luffy were strong fighters as far as he could judge it. Bepo was quite quick, too. But Zoro hadn’t seen him in a spare, yet.  So he wasn’t able to say something about Bepo’s strength. Also, he had a feeling that he hadn’t seen everything the three others could do with their devil fruits or Haki.

 

But the swordsman had noticed how all four got each other’s back if it was needed. They might be a little annoying sometimes. But they were his crew members now. So he should also work hard to be strong enough to have their backs like they had his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was chapter 4. Chapter 5 will be out sometime the middle of September or the end of September. A bit unsure, but you will see.
> 
> See you until next time


	6. ~Chapter 5 – Agreement and Learning~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, there~
> 
> Here is the next chapter of 'A different journey'.
> 
> But before I go into a ramble, I forget to say congratulation to the Guest who reviewed the second chapter (third chapter if you count prologue as one) on the 4th July. One of your guesses is right. Chouchou is joining them.
> 
> To be true, he wasn't in my original plan but when I got to work on the Orange Town part, I reread the part a bit and to be true, I love how much Chouchou somehow resembles Luffy by protecting his treasure and in the end thanking them by letting them go by easily. If Luffy had been the dog, I feel he would act the same.
> 
> For the other part of the guess, you have to wait a bit. I think the answer will come in eight chapter (the ninth chapter if you count prologue as one). No spoilers at the moment ;)
> 
> So before I go into the review respond-section(this section is only on FF dot net), if there is anything that sounds strange or you're unsure about if you understand it right, just ask me. I try to respond to you as quick as possible if it does help. But if the answer will contain spoilers, I won't answer directly. But don't worry I will get back to your question if it isn't a spoiler any longer.
> 
> And now on to the chapter~

Law sighed and looked up from his papers regarding Ace’s medical information. The black-haired logia user was getting more and more annoying.

 

Ace seemed to become slightly aggressive when his decisions were questioned. Something which only happened when the decision involved Luffy’s safety and that wasn’t the case in these situations when the logia user turned himself on fire.

 

Law narrowed his eyes. It couldn’t be, right? So-called Latebloomers regarding the second gender were rare and even if they hadn’t been so rare, just from the medical information, Law would have said the chances of Ace presenting during the last year of the presenting phase were even lower than them finding something or someone Luffy would treasure more or as much as his hat and them.

 

The surgeon pinched the bridge of his nose. But… that Ace was going through the second gender presentation stage was the only reasonable explanation for his behaviour. It would also combine with the way the grey eyes seemed to sadden when Luffy became the target of the twenty-year-old one’s aggressive side.

 

So what could he do? Ace being like that wasn’t helpful for their journey. It wouldn’t be long until the bad mood affected Luffy as well. This would be the worst that could happen.

 

“Torao, tell the meanie to stop being so stingy. He wanted to lock my straw hat away”, Luffy whined. Law looked at the younger one who had his precious straw hat in a death grip. The surgeon thought for a moment before he stood up.

 

He had to act fast if it had come already that far. The best way to deal with Ace was probably to get the others off the ship. Then the others couldn’t interrupt.

 

“Ne, Luffy, why don’t you take Zoro, Bepo and Chouchou with you to explore the island. There shouldn’t be any people only animals. Maybe you could camp for three days out there”, Law suggested.

 

“And the meanie?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with him. Just enjoy your island adventure. But don’t go overboard with your freedom. Just in case people are showing up”, Law warned. He could hear a whine from his little step-brother/cousin. So he understood. But even if Luffy was whiny, Law suddenly felt arms around him.

 

“See you, Torao. Be careful with your heat.”

 

He starred after the younger one in shocked who was now shouting for Zoro and Bepo.

 

How did Luffy know that he was close to his heat? Sure, he had taken some light suppressants which hide his scent but they didn’t stop his heat like the other suppressants he took but these were only for when they came into rough areas. Rough areas in which he didn’t want to go into heat.

 

But back to the real topic concerning him at the moment. Luffy shouldn’t be able to know that he was close to his heat.

 

A groan left him. He should better hurry and decided how to deal with Ace. Otherwise, his heat started and he hadn’t done anything.

 

Law looked at his notes again.

 

He had two options.

 

The first was simple, he would mate with Ace until the other one would find his true mate. Law was conflicted about this solution. He knew that Ace would be troubled about that if the other found someone else. Because Ace wasn’t one to leave a person he cared about for someone else. So maybe he should go for his second option.

 

This would be a little more complicated in general but would have fewer effects on the relationship on the ship and future relationships. Really strong suppressants. It would be kinda rare for an Alpha to take that strong suppressant. But well if it was needed. The only problem there was how the suppressant would react with Ace’s normal medicine against his narcolepsy.  

 

So maybe the second option wasn’t exactly better. The surgeon sighed. He should have a talk with Ace about this. Probably as soon as possible.

 

Law left the medical room and went to their room in which the logia user was at the moment. Ace laid flat on a futon with his face in the pillow. Looked like he had a fit because of his disagreement with Luffy. Whatever this had been about.

 

The surgeon leant himself against the door frame and waited. But since the other didn’t show any signs to react towards him, he decided to start talking: “I allowed Luffy to take Zoro, Bepo and Chouchou of the ship to explore the island. They will probably also camp there which means you have some days to get over your trouble with your Alpha instincts.” Law’s eyes rested on Ace who now turned himself around.

 

Damn… why couldn’t the other one keep his shirt close instead of showing of these muscles all the time? Even if he called Ace his step-brother, he couldn’t deny the fact that the other was indeed kinda hot.

 

Law suppressed a groan. Maybe it was a bad idea to have this talk when he was close to his heat. Especially since Ace had freshly presented.

 

How hadn’t he noticed the change in the other’s scent? It had become somehow more dominant.

 

“I’m not having any kind of problems. Must be your imagination”. Ace grumbled. Law rolled his eyes. Typical Ace. Trying to deal with his problems alone.

 

“Sure, if it’s my imagination then why do you seem pissed if things didn’t go your way. Even Luffy doesn’t want to be close to you at the moment, because you are a stingy meanie. So tell me, Ace, what is on your mind except for the trouble with your instincts?” Law pinched himself slightly to keep his focus. It also didn’t help that he got a full hit of Ace’s scent. A small groan left him.

 

Damn it, he should have taken the stronger suppressant. How should he keep a calm head and got the talk over completely?

 

It became even harder when Ace surprised him and pinned him to the futon. Trapping him slightly under the slightly smaller one.

 

“Just form your reaction, I can tell you are having trouble with your instincts, Ace”, Law tried to keep his voice from shaking.

“Shut up”, Ace growled above him and bit his shoulder. The surgeon bit his lower lip to suppress a groan.

 

So looked like Ace’s instincts had decided which option without hearing about them. Well, talking was now useless. Especially since his own heat-instincts started to kick up and Ace was quickly able to reduce him to a whiny, needy, submitting mess in heat.

 

Luckily, he took this stupid birth control pills despite not having a mate.

 

Also, maybe he should also lie that this was the only option, because damn it felt good to not have to deal with the heat alone.

 

~*~*~

 

Ace starred at Law’s naked form next to him.

 

He had done it. He had taken advantage of Law who had gone into heat and wasn’t really able to defend himself at that point.

 

Ace hid his face in his palms. How could he face Law when the other woke up? How could he face Luffy? His baby brother would be disappointed that he wasn’t able to keep his instincts in check. How could he face their grandpa and Cora-san again? Both had told him to take care of the two others. Especially when Law went into heat. Damn the effects of paramecia devil fruits on Omegas… Hell, he even said he would beat up any Alpha who came to close to Law when the surgeon went into heat and was very very submissive at that time.

 

And he turned out to be an Alpha who can’t keep his instincts in check and took advantage of that…

 

“Feeling better now?”, Law’s voice interrupted his thoughts. It lacked any emotion Ace would have expected. To be true, the other sounded kinda amused.

 

“How can you ask for my well-being after …”, Ace began but was interrupted by a pair of arms around his waist.

“If you are on this trip you better shut up. I knew what I was getting into… Even if I had hoped that I was able to talk about it first before it happened”, Law said.  

 

This was a bit shocking. Law had intended to let him take advantage of the other?!  Ace wanted to say something… but he couldn’t. Well more, he didn’t know what to say and he was still surprised that he was hugged by Law who also initiated the hug.

 

“Since you became a little more aggressive if things didn’t go your way, I have suspected that you would present as an Alpha. Even if the chances were low. You like to go with your instincts which are now messed up because in the early presentation stage for some strange reason Alpha always think they are always right in their decision. Adding the effect Logia devil fruits have on Alpha with your natural temperament, you are a complete mess as long as you either get it under control by training and more training or get a mate. Therefore, I would like to offer you a deal. We mate. Your instincts will be easier to control and maybe your mood will be better”, Law mumbled.

 

Ace turned his head in shock. Law couldn’t have just suggested what he thought he had heard. “You are really thinking about mating with me? Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am. If you want to know. It has plus points for me, too. The heat cycles will change form every two months to every four months, mated Omegas are off the radar of Alphas until they went into heat and the last point, I’m tired of spending my heats alone trying to pleasure myself”, Law said.

 

The Alpha studied the other carefully. To him, the deal sounded like Law offered him his body so that he was able to keep his instincts and temperament in check. This sounded nice in the way Law had worded it. Especially since there were plus points for the other, too.

 

But… a big negative thought crossed his mind. What would be if he somehow knocked Law up and the child would be born? The child which inherited the cursed blood of his father. A child with a father who shouldn’t exist. Also, what if…

 

“Ow.” Law had hit. “What was that for?”

“For the stupid thought, you most likely have. No one who is on the ship cares about who your father is. But they care about Ace and they want Ace to live!”

“But…”

“No buts. Otherwise, I will tell Luffy that you have your doubts again.”

 

Ace felt a cold shiver running down his spine. Luffy would turn into a whiny brat if he heard about that. He hated when his baby brother was that way. First, it was annoying and second, he couldn’t say no to Luffy’s demands in that phase.

 

“Good. So since there are no other problems. Is it fine with you that we mate until we find other people?”

“What… What if there is no other person for me to find?”, Ace mumbled and looked down.

 

“You are thinking about this soul mate-stuff. That when you present as an Alpha that you hear the first words which your soul mate will say to you on your first meeting?” Ace nodded.

“I didn’t hear anything… only silence…”, the fire user mumbled.

 

“There are various answers. Your soulmate can be mute. You already met your soulmate, but we will leave this one out as you would have felt it. The third option would be that your soulmate doesn’t say anything for the first time you met.” He felt Law patting his shoulders. “But many people live without their soulmate. Happy with their mate they grew to care for and love. Some even reject their soul mates for the person they mated with. So, don’t think too much about that stuff too much. I care for you, Ace. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here right now”, Law said.

 

Ace nodded. The words did help a bit. He still had his doubts that this was really going to be okay.

 

But then another thought crossed his mind. The black-haired one felt a grin ghosting over his face. “Does that mean I am allowed to hug now every time, too? After all, I am your mate now, Torao”, Ace teased and was lightly hit.

“Don’t push it too much, idiot. You are the one who will explain it to Luffy. He is your baby brother, after all.”

 

The Alpha groaned. This talk with his baby brother wasn’t going to be easy… Especially after he acted a bit like a jerk towards Luffy in the last days.

 

“Don’t worry, Luffy only calls you a stingy meanie.” Law’s comment and chuckle didn’t help one bit.

 

~*~*~

 

Luffy felt free as he ran through the grass. Chouchou next to him and Zoro and Bepo behind him trying to catch up.

 

“Oi, Luffy, slow down. We have three days”, the swordsman reminded him. “But we have so much to do. We have to explore, hunt, grill, eat, play eat and so much more”, Luffy stopped and waited for Bepo and Zoro to catch up. Chouchou jumped around his legs so the black-haired one kneeled down to pat the dog. “Just wait a bit. Looks like Zoro and Bepo are already out of breath”, the straw-hatted boy said.

 

“We run after you for nearly half a day. We are allowed to be a bit tired. How about we set the camp up here and hunt for something to eat? And after the meal, I want to spare against you, Luffy. Law said something about Busoshoku Haki and that sparing with you would be some kind of a good example”, Zoro said. This piped Luffy’s interest.

 

He hadn’t really used Busoshoku Haki since they came back to the East Blue a year ago.  It would be good to use it in training again.

 

“Let’s do it!”, Luffy cheered.

 

Sometime later, they were ready. Chouchou was next to Bepo who would be a referee. Also, the polar bear mink would interfere if he thought it would be needed.

 

“Try to not hurt each other. Zoro, would you for that reason keep the sheaths on your swords? Luffy, don’t try to break the sheaths or the swords”, Bepo said.

 

Luffy tapped his feet impatiently on the ground. He felt the excitement rushing through his veins. “Let’s fight”, he just said and jumped towards Zoro.

 

The swordsman blocked his kick with his swords and pushed him back. “Don’t even think about holding back with your speed”, Zoro said looking at him with a piercing glance. Luffy grinned.

 

“As you wish”, the black-haired boy said. “Soru.” With full speed, he dashed towards and hit him. The other flew a bit back but was able to regain his stand again.

 

 “Santoryu”, was the only thing he heard from Zoro’s technique.

 

“Zoro, you sheath!”, Bepo suddenly shouted but it seemed too late for the swordsman to stop the attack. Well, now that would be a good way of showing Zoro Haki instead of dodging like he would normally do.

 

Luffy lifted his arms and letting the Haki colour his arms black. He felt the sword hitting his arms. But nothing more. Luffy grinned at Zoro.

 

“That’s Haki”, he said when the swordsman jumped a bit back. Bepo was next to Luffy really fast to check if he got hurt. “I’m fine, Bepo. Look no cuts”, he said and showed the other his arms. The polar bear mink looked at him slightly concerned.

 

“Luffy, I have a question for you.” Luffy looked curiously at the swordsman.

“Can you tell me about Devil Fruits? I know they grant you some strange power in exchange for the ability to swim. But nothing more. From what I have seen Ace can do something with fire and Law’s making this blue sphere. But how many are there? And what is your Devil Fruit?”, Zoro asked.

 

“Oh, Ace hasn’t something to do with fire.” This got him a confused look of the swordsman. “He is fire. He is a logia user. He ate the Mera Mera no Mi. Logia are Element Users or so Torao said. They can manipulate their element and turn into it. Law has a paramecia devil fruit. The Ope Ope no Mi. It helps with his medical stuff. The blue sphere is a Room. He can operate in it. Paramecia are well they include nearly everything that doesn’t belong to Logia and Zoan”, Luffy said and took a small break. “Zoan Devil Fruit user can turn into animals. There are normal Zoans, who transform into still living animals. And there are Ancient and Mystical Zoans. Ancients would be a dinosaur for an example. At least Torao said, it would be enough if I remember it that way. Mystical Zoans are said to be the strongest and rarest. They have some mystical powers and well they don’t exist. I don’t know how this works. Torao explained it that way. I have a …” He was interrupted by Chouchou who had jumped him to lick his face. The boy giggled and patted the dog’s head.

 

Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed how Bepo hit Zoro for not being careful with the sheaths. The polar bear mink also threatened the swordsman if that happened again, he would answer Ace and Law. So the topic wasn’t devil fruits any longer.

 

“It was an accident!”, Zoro shouted.

“I’m sorry”, Bepo mumbled in a slightly depressed voice.

“Hey, don’t bully Bepo!”, Luffy said before his stomach grumbled slightly. “Ne, do we still have some food?” A groan was all he heard from Zoro and Bepo.

 

The camping days were fun. It was a bit sad that Ace was being a stingy meanie and Law close to his heat. It would have been more fun if they had been all together. But it had been nice to have Bepo with them.

 

The polar bear mink looked happier that he had been able to leave the ship again. Poor Bepo. They really need to hurry and get to the Grandline. There a mink wouldn’t be looked at like he was a miracle.

 

Slowly the ship came in their sight. Law and Ace were already waiting for them on board.

 

“Torao”, Luffy cheered and jumped the surgeon for a hug. “It was great to go camping.” Law smirked and tousled his hair. His big brother looked somehow strange.

 

“Didn’t you miss your big brother, Luffy?”, Ace asked. Luffy looked at him.

“No, you are a meanie. You wanted to take my hat away just because I got the last piece of meat”, the straw-hatted boy said.

 

“I think, you need a talk with your big brother. Because he is very sorry and he also got his doubts again”, Law told him with a grin.

 

Luffy looked from Law to his brother and back. He was slightly shocked. “You said, you wouldn’t say anything”, Ace grumbled but the older one had paled a bit. Luffy let go of Law.

 

“I don’t want a life without Ace. Even if Ace is a stingy meanie”, the boy whined and trapped his big brother in a death hug. He didn’t like it when his big brother was doubting himself again. He looked up with a pout on his lips.

 

His brother didn’t need to say anything. Luffy just knew what was on Ace’s mind. Especially when the older one had his doubts.

 

“Ace is Ace. Just Ace, my big brother”, Luffy said. A smile appeared on his lips when he felt Ace hugging him.

“I know, Luffy… I know”, his older brother said.

“There was more you should tell him, Ace”, Law sounded quite amused.

 

“To make it short. I presented as an Alpha and well… Law and I decided to mate until we found someone else…”, Ace said.

 

Luffy blinked at his big brother confused before he poked his nose and asked: “So what is the problem?” He could hear Law groan while Ace chuckled.

“Nothing. It’s fine and I’m sorry for being a meanie, Luffy.”

 

Also, Ace said that he was sorry. So it was fine. As long as Ace stops being a meanie everything else wasn’t important.

 

“Ne, Torao? Since you and Ace used your devil fruit against the red nose baka. Does that mean we are allowed to use it now in every fight?”, Luffy suddenly asked. He made sure to use this puppy-eyes look.

 

Law sighed. “Fine, but don’t go overboard… We should be out of the East Blue soon. But only in fights. That means no flying around, Luffy.”

 

Luffy pouted. Using their devil fruits in fights was fine. But no flying around? That was mean. He missed the wind in his hair. So Luffy whined: “Ace, Torao is a meanie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So can you guys guess Luffy's devil fruit? I know I didn't leave many hints, yet. But I'm quite curious what do you guys think. I promise you that it isn't an over the top devil fruit. That much I say.
> 
> Also an explanation on the Ace/Law-part. I know, I didn't do lots of development or hints for that and it is basically just dropped onto you but remember there are Flashbacks of their childhood going to come. And the whole influence of devil fruits on the second gender and the whole system in general in the world will be picked up again and another point during the story. So I may not answer to questions on that system, yet.
> 
> But I can tell the Ace/Law-part is a little bit the reason why I posted this chapter a bit earlier than intended. I hope you had fun with it and your opinion on Ace/Law. Also, I will not mark Ace & Law as a pairing on FF dot net with the characters. Because well I could only choose four and if I put the pairing Ace/Law there, I feel like I have to focus much more on them than I did until now. So it will be tagged in AO3 after the next chapter is up, but I won't do it on FF dot net. Just in case someone wonders about it.
> 
> So see you in October~ ^^


	7. ~Chapter 6 – The strongest swordsman and the strongest man?~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I needed to upload this chapter a bit earlier than intended, because of reasons. The next one will be uploaded most likely in November. But I don't say it will be November for sure maybe I'll find the time to upload in Oktober again. Just November is more likely than Oktober. 
> 
> To the chapter... it was biting me since I started to get to a certain point. I already spoilt a bit in chapter four, I guess, when I said I started to hate writing fighting scenes. Well, here you get the very reason for it. I hope it is readable and doesn't want to make you stop reading the chapter x.x (I do appreciate critic if you can voice it in a way to help me)
> 
> Otherwise, enjoy^^

Luffy pouted. They, that meant Ace, Law, Zoro and him, were at some floating restaurant called Baratie. The owner was a former pirate named Red-Leg Zeff, at least that was what Law had said.   

      

So there wouldn’t any dine and dash like Ace and Luffy used to do it when they were younger. Especially, since the restaurant had a reputation that all cooks were able to fight and were not above beating up visitors, who would dine and dash, were rowdy or just ungrateful.

 

Luffy had thought they would do a little dine and dash but no. Not even Ace was up for it. They also had left Bepo and Chouchou on Shippy. Something that made him pout, too. The food was good here and their trusty navigator wasn’t able to taste anything from it. Even if Luffy normally wasn’t sharing his food. Now he wished he could take some food with him for Bepo and Chouchou.

 

This made him think. “Ne, do you think we could convince one of the cooks to travel with us?”, Luffy asked and licked his plate clean. That much should be allowed because the sauce was too good to be wasted.

“Don’t do that, Luffy. That’s impolite to do in a restaurant”, Law hissed at him. Luffy blinked at the older one. How was it impolite to eat everything you have on your plate?

 

“But Torao, it was delicious. It wouldn’t be nice to let the rest of it go wasted. Also, Ji-chan said to eat as much as possible because you don’t know when you will get your next meal” Luffy whined slightly.

“Yeah and after he said that you and Ace ate the whole food storage”, Law said and poked his forehead.

 

Luffy giggled about the memory. Yeah, that had been fun. They hadn’t been hit by their grandpa back then. The old man had only laughed while the crew planned their next stop a little annoyed.

 

His eyes were now on his clean plate. “Is there a way we can grab some food for Bepo and Chouchou, too?”

 

Ace’s hand was immediately on his forehead. “I think, he has a fever. But I can’t feel anything”, his big brother said.

“You probably hit him too hard in the morning when he woke you up”, Law scolded Ace.

 

“Hey, I just want to bring some good food to Bepo and Chouchou. It’s not like I’m sharing my food”, Luffy protested.

 

“You want some food to take with you?”, someone suddenly asked behind him.

 

It was a blonde young man who was around Zoro’s height. Only one eye was visible and the eyebrow looked kinda funny. It was the one chef who had taken the order.

 

“If that is possible, yes. Nothing special. Just one normal meal and some meat which isn’t flavoured or salted if it is okay”, Law answered quickly. A smile ghosted over Luffy’s lips. So they could share this delicious meal with Bepo and Chouchou.

 

The chef looked a bit surprised about the second part but nodded. “I’ll look what I can get you”, he said and went over to a man, who boasted himself as Marine Lieutenant Fullbody, with his date.

 

“I say this date isn’t going to end well”, Ace mused as they watched the woman chuckling about something the cook said. “The cook seems to be a ladies man.”

 

“Well, then I’ll say if you are right then it would be interesting to see how he would react if this soulmate-stuff is real and his turns out to be male”, Zoro said and drank a sip from his jar. Both, the swordsman and his big brother, were chuckling about this while Law only rolled his eyes.

 

But Luffy tuned them out. His eyes were fixed on the blonde cook.

 

The Marine had thrown the soup on the floor. Getting the attention of a lot of people. The cook had bent down. His face was shadowed. Was the blonde angry?

 

It seemed so. Because the cook first lectured the Marine about wasting food, before he easily defeated the Lieutenant only using his feet. So the blonde was strong and able to cook. Luffy had also a positive feeling about him.

 

He grinned. “I like him. Do you think that we are able to convince him to join us?”, Luffy said and surprised Ace, Law and Zoro.

“Well… he can fight and he can cook. So it would be helpful, but he’s a ladies man…”, his big brother started.

“Meaning we would have a higher chance with a female crew member”, Law said.

“I’ll ask him to join us”, Luffy decided.

 

Unknown to Luffy, Ace and Law shared a glance knowing fully well that the straw-hatted boy could also have said “I’ll make him join us” and would do it the same way.

 

The black-haired boy wanted to stand up to talk with the blonde cook but was held back by his big brother. “The fight isn’t over, yet”, Ace said.

 

And his big brother was right.

 

The marine had stood up again. Grumbling something, they weren’t able to hear but Luffy was sure that it wasn’t something nice.

 

The pink-haired man intended to attack again but was stopped by a man entering.

 

The man who just entered looked thin and starved. But there was something about him that scared the customers. Luffy only felt some kind of pity for him but he didn’t know why.

 

“That’s Gin the ‘Man-Demon’, a combat commander of the Krieg Pirates”, Law whispered.

 

Ace’s arms were still around Luffy, probably to keep him from interfering with something. So he could only watch how Gin demanded food while Fullbody fleed in fear of the man. But the pirate was kicked out shortly after because he had no money with him.

 

Out of the corner of his eyes, Luffy noticed how the blonde cook had gone upstairs during the whole event. Upstairs should be the kitchen. After all, the food had been carried down the stair.

 

“I’ll take a walk around the restaurant”, Luffy said, freed himself out of Ace’s holds and stood up.

“Don’t do anything stupid”, his big brother warned him, but he only waved at his big brother and the other, before he went out.

 

The boy followed his instincts and took the left way. Luffy only took a few steps before he stopped.

 

Gin was leaning against the railing, breathing heavily and clutching his stomach. The sign of hunger made Luffy want to say something to maybe cheer the man up, but the blonde cook suddenly appeared.

 

The chef put down a plate with light food and a glass of water next to the man.

 

“Don’t eat too quickly. It won’t be healthy for your stomach”, the blonde said.

“I don’t need your pity.”

“I didn’t do it because I pity you. I did it because it’s a cook’s job to feed the people. If I let you starve, I wouldn’t honour the words of my teacher. So eat.”

 

Gin blinked confused at the cook. Then he started to eat. “That’s so delicious…” The man seemed to have problems eating not too fast. “But I can’t pay…”, Gin said after he had finished his meal.

 

“What should you pay for? There is no evidence that you got food”, the blonde chef told him and let the empty plate and the glass fall into the ocean.

 

Luffy grinned. The cook was a good guy. He only liked him more after seeing this nice nature. Anyone who would give other food without wanting something for themselves was nice.

 

“Ne, cook-guy, would you join my crew? Well, at the moment Torao is the captain but I will become the captain after we fulfilled our promise. We plan to reach the top and travelling to the New World while aiming to achieve our dreams”, Luffy spoke up and stepped out of his hiding place. Surprising both older man slightly.

 

“Why should I join a bunch of idiots who don’t even know my name?”, the chef said.

“The New World? Are you out of your mind. A young boy like you shouldn’t even think about going to the Grandline”, Gin sounded slightly scared when he mentioned the Grandline.

 

Luffy tilted his head. “A name is something to call you. A name is not what you are. You are a nice guy, you can fight and cook, so join us”, the black-haired boy said to the chef before his brown eyes were on Gin.“Why not? I already have been there. Well on Ji-chan’s ship, but it wasn’t that scary. Also, travelling on the Grandline will bring me closer to achieving my dream.” A slight pout on his lips. What did the other know about the Grandline or about him?

 

The chef massaged his temples. For some reason, he reminded Luffy of Law when the older one thought about how to answer him as simple as possible.

 

“Liste, kid, I’m not going to join.” “Why? I’m not Kid. I’m Luffy and I’ll be the one who explored the whole Grandline!”

 

This seemed to surprise the two others. It made Luffy wonder why? They should have expected something like this.

 

Then he got an idea. The other’s guessed that the chef was a ladies-man. So maybe… “We are also planning to go to Fishman Island for a quick stop. I haven’t seen it yet, but I met one when I was with Ji-chan. The Fishman said that the Fishmen and the merpeople are treating each other more peacefully than humans each other. Also, he said that most woman can’t compete with the beauty of a mermaid. Even if I don’t know why to compete in beauty. Competing for cooking sounds better. Because then there will be lots of food”, Luffy tilted his head while he thought about the competition. He felt himself getting hungry again.

 

“You are going to see mermaids?!”, the blonde chef nearly screamed in surprise. Heart like eyes. Luffy suppressed a grin and nodded.

“Yeah, we will.”

 

“So join them if you want to see mermaids or go back to work, stupid brat”, someone suddenly said from above them. The heart in the chef’s eye disappeared and he looked more stoic.

“Don’t think I’m leaving so easily, shitty old man”, the blonde said.

 

Luffy watched how the chef made sure that Gin had left before he went inside without saying another word towards him. But the other, the ‘shitty old man’ said something towards him: “Oi, brat, come here for a second.”

 

The man waved him up. A bit confused Luffy went to the stairs and quickly climbed them up. He followed the man to a room. Some might now say that he was too trusty, but this man didn’t feel bad. So he was okay.

 

“So you are trying to recruit Sanji for your pirate crew in making, huh?”, the mand said and sat himself down on a chair.

 

“How did you know it is for a pirate crew?”, Luffy asked surprised. He thought he had worded it well enough to hide the fact. After all, they weren’t allowed, yet.

 

The man started to laugh. “You said that you are going to explore the whole Grandline. I’ll go a little further and say it is the One Piece you want to find.”

 

“Wow, you are really smart”, Luffy said impressed. But the man just laughed.

“It takes an ex-pirate to notice a pirate in making.”

 

Ex-pirate? Wait, didn’t Law had said something about that?

 

“Oh, you are the owner. Leg-Red Jeff”, Luffy said. For some reason, he got kicked by the man with the wooden leg. “Ow.”

“It was Red-Leg Zeff, brat. Learn the names right. Otherwise, you will get into trouble someday when you are speaking with pirates of a stronger and more famous crew.”

 

“Don’t care”, Luffy mumbled only to get kicked again.

~*~*~

 

Sanji starred a bit thoughtfully on the food before him. The kid’s words were still on his mind.

 

**“You are a nice guy, you can fight and cook, so join us.”**

 

The blonde chef was a bit surprised by this child-like logic. The kid was at least fifteen or sixteen if he would guess. Normally by then, this child-like logic was lost to bitterness because of all the corrupt world. What did the three other with the kid to keep him that innocent?

 

Sanji groaned. Now he was worried for the kid who was allowed to run around alone, just because of the plan to go the Grandline. Weren’t the three other’s afraid of losing the kid? He really wouldn’t be surprised if the kid got lost.

 

He stopped and shook his head. Why should he worry about a stupid kid who asked him to join, because he was nice and could fight and cook? There wasn’t any kind of motivation to go with them.

 

First, they were all four male. He didn’t really do well with males except for Zeff(sometimes). He blamed his ‘family’ for that. Second, there were no girls. Third, he may not know Bepo and Chouchou, the two the extra food was for, but even if one them had been a girl, he wouldn’t join either. Because it was not right to leave a beautiful girl behind to eat. So three times a no. He wasn’t going to join them. Even if…

 

**“We plan to reach the top and travelling to the New World while aiming to achieve our dreams.”**

 

It did sound nice to travel around. To see new people. Learn new receipts or new ingredients… To achieve his dream… to find the All Blue. The kid seemed confident that the crew would be able to achieve their dreams… so maybe joining them wasn’t so bad even if there were four males.

 

A loud crashing sound from the restaurant interrupted his thoughts. Also, a woman screamed. Sanji put the plate down and immediately ran down the stairs.

 

Gentlemen couldn’t just go on with his work if a woman could be in danger.

 

There stood a man in a golden armour. The man threatened the customers and demanded food. But not only that. He wanted the Baratie, too.

 

It made Sanji clench his fists. Food would be fine. But the Baratie was the shitty old man’s treasure. There was no way he would let it be hand over easily.

 

“Food will be fine. But this belongs to the shitty old man. There is no way we handing it over”, Sanji said calmly with his hands in his pockets.

 

The other cooks behind him protested that they wouldn’t give the man any kind of food. They just wanted to kick him out. Well, at least at the point that the armoured man wouldn’t get the Baratie.

 

But neither of them had noticed that Zeff had gone up and come back down throwing a bag full of food in front of the man.

 

“There. Feed your man with that, Krieg. But like the others already said, you won’t get the ship”, the old man said and crossed his arms.

 

Krieg? Was that Don Krieg, the Pirate Fleet Admiral? But hadn’t there been rumours that the man had set sail to the Grandline. So why was Krieg here?

 

“Red-leg Zeff. It’s surprising to see a former pirate like you working in a restaurant. But when you are here, we will not only take the ship. We will take everything else, too”, Krieg said with a grin.

 

Zeff mused. “You think about finding something that helps you on the Grandline, right? Well, I won’t hand it over to you, even if I died”, the old man spoke with a serious voice and lifted his leg like he was prepared for a fight.

 

“I’m the strongest man in the world so I will get it!”

 

“Ne, Torao, isn’t this Ossan with the cool moustache the strongest man in the world?”, the kid’s voice was suddenly heard. So the boy was still here and was not afraid of correcting Don Krieg as it seemed.

 

“Ossan with the cool moustache?”, the slightly taller black-haired man wondered. The man stood closer to the boy. Like he was ready to push the boy behind him in case something happened.

“Luffy probably means Whitebeard, the Yonko, right?”, the tallest of the group said. The boy nodded. “Then you are right. Whitebeard is known as the strongest man in the world. So this one is probably bluffing about his strength. Because the sentence wouldn’t even work if he just viewed the East Blue as the world as there enough strong people who are working or living on the Grandline who may come from here”, the tallest said like stating facts which he probably just did.

 

Krieg looked dumbstruck.

 

If the man was such a great pirate as his bounty and so on lead on, he should have heard about Whitebeard.

 

Hell, even Sanji had heard about Whitebeard from Zeff. Because the old man thought it would be safer for him if he at least knew some important pirate names and that he shouldn’t mess with them.

 

Whitebeard was feared on the Grandline. Many people who tried taking the man’s head died trying.

 

“Looks like these brats are more prepared of going to the Grandline than you are”, Zeff said with a slight grin.

 

Krieg looked angry. “Just wait until I have my man here”, the man threatened and left.

 

This didn’t sound very good. They should hurry and evacuate the customers who were still there.

 

“Ne, you were on the Grandline, weren’t you? That’s why you said I shouldn’t go there.”

 

To who was the brat talking now. Gin?!

 

The man he had feed some time ago looked scared and guilty at the floor.

 

“We were only there for a few days when… suddenly he appeared. Our whole fleet was cut down with ease…” Gin started to shiver. “I don’t think I will ever forget these hawk-like eyes staring at us…”

 

“Ah, so you met Mihawk. You should have been more careful. If he had cut your ships, you probably pissed him off with something”, Zeff spoke up.

 

Gin shook his head furiously. A shocked look in his eyes. “We didn’t do anything!”

 

“Maybe you just disturbed his nap.”

 

This sounded like a really stupid reason. Especially for someone strong enough to cut whole ships.

 

But now wasn’t the time.

 

“We don’t have time to talk about possibilities what happened. We need to prepare for battle”, Sanji said and lightened a cigarette.

 

“Ne, your name was Sanji, right. If we beat this armour-guy so he leaves the restaurant alone. Will you join us?”, the kid, how did the tallest of the four call him again… ah, Luffy suddenly asked him.

 

“Oi, Luffy, stop that. No more picking fights until I say so!”

“But Torao…”

 

The one with the orange cowboy hat put his hand on Luffy’s mouth. “Excuse my little brother. He doesn’t know when or how to give up so he will probably bother you until you join”, he said.

 

So these two were brothers.

 

Torao hit both of them. “Maybe Luffy would have learned it if his older brother and his grandfather aren’t the same”, the tallest mumbled.

 

The last of the group didn’t seem to really react to what happened. The eyes of the green-haired man were focused on the wall and his hand had a tight grip on the swords he carried around.

 

What was up with him?

 

“I won’t answer now. There are more important things to do first.”

 

~*~*~

 

How had Krieg been that fast? Luffy was sure that it hadn’t been that long since the man left to get his ship. The only which was still complete, something Gin had told them.

 

The man seemed really confused about what he wanted to do and he should do. So Gin had hidden somewhere on the Baratie. He said he didn’t want to fight… but he should fight…

 

Deep down Luffy could understand the man’s conflict. The big ship would fear lesser people. It was kinda scary, even if he wasn’t afraid, how fast the ship came closer.

 

_“It won’t reach you.”_

 

Luffy looked around confused. The voice had been female. But there was no woman closeby so he could hear it.

 

“Luffy, are you okay?”, His brother’s voice made him turn his head towards Ace. But before he could say something about the voice he just heard the ship in front of them fell apart.

 

Luffy was sure that he had heard a slashing sound. But what could cut a big ship that easily without being seen?

 

Then …

 

“That’s him. The best swordsman in the world Hawk Eyes Mihawk”, Zoro said in a hushed voice. Luffy could hear and feel the excitement of their swordsman. The green-haired one didn’t even need to voice it, Luffy knew without the other telling again that there would be nothing to stop Zoro from fighting against one of the Shichibukai. One of the strongest if the rumours are true.

 

Ace and Law were already busy helping the cooks to prevent the Krieg pirates from coming on board the Baratie. Even if most of them were in a panic because of the sudden appearance of Mihawk.

Someone even lost it and tried to shoot the man.

 

Luffy never saw someone deflecting bullets that easily with a sword. Not even during the time with Ji-chan on the Grandline. It had even looked like the sword hadn’t even touched the bullets.

 

The straw-hatted boy blinked when he suddenly saw Zoro between the men close by Mihawk. He hadn’t really noticed that the other moved. Luffy clenched his fist and looked to Law and Ace.

 

“Ace, Law, this is already Zoro’s chosen fight. So don’t interfere”, the boy said and shadowed his face slightly with his straw hat.

“The same rules as always, huh?”, Ace mused. Luffy nodded.

“Anyone who dares to interfere gets beaten.”

 

But that wasn’t needed.

 

Most of Krieg’s men were too scared to even go to close to Mihawk. So the well ‘duell’ was without any interference.

 

But it was sad to see how tall the gap between Mihawk and Zoro were. The Shichibukai easily defended himself with a small sword against all of Zoro’s three swords. He didn’t want to know how much damage Mihawk would do if he used his main weapon.

 

Luffy felt frustrated. He wanted to help his crewmate but then he would go against the rules they set for fights. No interference if it was said or somehow mentioned how important that fight was or that the fight was someones. He said it before to his brother and Law. This was Zoro’s fight and all they could do was to stand close by.

 

He clenched his fists as Zoro got stabbed. No one hurt his Nakama.

 

But this was Zoro’s fight.

 

He felt a hand on his shoulder. The straw-hatted boy turned his head to see Law. “Trust Zoro. Even if it seems reckless, he knows what he is doing”, the older one said. Luffy only nodded and looked back at the fight.

 

His eyes widened. Mihawk had his main weapon in the hand. What had happened? What did convince Mihawk to stop mocking Zoro by fighting with a small sword?

 

But he got a bad feeling about the fight. A very bad one.

 

“ZORO!”, Luffy could only scream the name of his green-haired friend when two of his three swords broke apart and blood drops fell to the ground.

 

He was only able to see Zoro’s back. Then his friend turned around and offered Mihawk another slash.

 

This was marking his defeat.

 

Luffy started to run towards Zoro when he noticed that the other was falling in the water.

 

“Room. Shambles.”

 

A little stone fell into the water where Zoro had been a second before.

 

Luffy turned his head to see Law with the green-haired swordsman. The surgeon would take care of Zoro.

 

He turned his head angrily towards Mihawk. The last slash wasn’t needed. Zoro had already been defeated by then.

 

The world’s best swordsman seemed to study him with a piercing glare. The big sword was on Mihawk’s back again.

 

“He won’t die. The cut only looks worse because it is fresh”, the Shichibukai said. Luffy was surprised. Then the man spoke louder. “It’s too early for you to die, brat. My name is Dracule Mihawk. Find your own style and your own way to become stronger. I don’t care how long it will take, but I will wait for a rematch in my strongest form. Surpass this sword! Surpass me, Roronoa Zoro!”

 

Luffy’s eyes widened. Mihawk respected Zoro! Zoro must have said about something about his dream and showed his devotion to his dream. That must be the reason why Mihawk changed his sword.

 

“Oi, kid. What are you planning to do?”

“Stupid question. Reaching the top and the end of the Grandline of course.” Was that a smile on Mihawk’s lips?

“A hard path you have chosen there.”

“Don’t care. I do what I want.” Luffy stuck out his tongue.

 

He was sure Ace or Law would have hit him for that if they were any closer but…

 

“Oi, Captain…” That was Zoro’s voice. Luffy turned his head to look at the green-haired swordsman.

 

He could see how the older one was panting and it seemed to cost a lot of energy to just talk. But Zoro had lifted his only sword at the moment in the air.

 

“If I don’t become the greatest swordsman in the world, you’d be in a dilemma, right?”

 

A cough was heard. It sounded painful. Law tried to make Zoro stop talking. But despite the pain Zoro was feeling, he kept on talking.

 

“I will… I will never lose again! … Until I defeat him and become the greatest swordsman, I’ll never be defeated anymore!”

 

Luffy felt a grin appearing on his face. He was sure that he also saw a smirk on Mihawk’s face.

 

“Do you have any problems with that, Captain Luffy?”

 

“None”, Luffy chirped loudly.

 

“Stop talking now”, Law scolded the swordsman loudly, before he started to order some cooks close by around for medical stuff and bandages to take care of Zoro. The surgeon was in his element.

 

Out of the corner of his eyes, Luffy noticed how Mihawk went back to his ship to leave.

 

“Oi, Hawkeye. Aren’t you here to take my head?”, the armoured man, who had just stood by, asked.

“I had my fun. I just followed you to kill some time. Now, there is nothing interesting here to do. So don’t waste my time”, Mihawk said coldly.

 

Without further interruption, the world’s best swordsman set sail again.

 

Now it was the time to deal with armoured man to stop him from taking the restaurant. Luffy might not have fully understood why their opponent wanted the ship. But he understood that the Baratie was the treasure of the owner. So he wouldn’t let them take the ship!

 

Krieg snarled. He didn’t seem happy about the way Mihawk treated them as a toy to just kill some time, but also he seemed happy to have the world’s greatest swordsman finally away.

 

“Men, board the ship and overtake it!”

 

Looked like the fight was starting now.

 

“Oi, braggart! Leave the ship alone or I’ll beat you!”, Luffy shouted lifting his fists. If he needed to beat this man to convince Sanji to come with them, he would do it.

 

Krieg just laughed. “A shrimp is trying to stop me? Don’t kill yourself, brat. I am Don Krieg the strongest man alive!”

 

“Hiken!”

 

His brother’s attack destroyed even more of the floating ship parts and scared some of the men.

 

Luffy didn’t wait long to use his chance to close the distance between Krieg and himself. He was going to kick the man’s ass.

 

He jumped on a floating piece and then ran at Krieg with full speed. Instinctively he covered his right fist with Haki. He was going to crash the armour with one hit.

 

His fist connected with the armour cracking first before breaking it. At least he thought he was breaking the armour but a barrier was between his fist and the other, but it cracked an broke down.

 

The power of the hit sent Krieg flying backwards.

 

“Don’t underestimate me!”, Luffy shouted and got into his fighting stance. Because even if he got a hit on his opponent. He hoped the fight wasn’t over, yet.

 

~*~*~

 

Ace was having fun. After his attack, most of Krieg’s man seemed scared and didn’t seem to know how to deal with him. He let their attacks go through his body. Letting flames dance on him.

 

When they got too close to the cooks he threw a kick or a hit at them. He couldn’t fight as freely as he would like. The ship was made of wood. His fire wouldn’t do it any good.

 

The cooks seemed all able to fight quite well against the lower rank members of the Krieg Pirates. But some of them seemed to have their trouble but these were solved by working together.

 

The only cook, who was able to fight off some member alone, was the one Luffy wanted to recruit. Sanji was the name if Ace remembered it right. The blonde was quite good.

 

Only using his feet to deliver strong kicks against his enemy. Also, the look in the visible eye showed pure determination. The determination to protect this place. Ace could see why Luffy wanted the cook to be part of the crew. Now if they only knew that he had a dream, too. Then Sanji would be a perfect addition to the crew. Despite the blonde being an annoying ladies man.

 

Suddenly two other cooks were sent flying.

 

A man with large shields on his body was laughing.

 

“Pearl-sama.”

 

Pearl? This name didn’t ring a bell. Ace was sure that he had listened carefully when he and Law went through potential big enemies last night with Zoro.

 

But the man must be some higher up of the Krieg Pirates. Otherwise, the members they were fighting at the moment wouldn’t call him that way. Also, the attack had been quite fast.

 

Ace narrowed his eyes at the man.

 

“You are going to lose. My last sixty-one battles I won completely unharmed. Not even spilling a drop of blood. Not even the cannon balls of the marine could harm me. I’m the strongest among the strongest.”

 

The other sounded like their captain. A braggart. Seriously why did they have a tendency to run into crews with egos too big for their own good? He hoped that would change on the Grandline.

 

Ace prepared himself for an attack when he noticed his little brother flying. Well, not really flying. He didn’t use his devil fruit. He must have been dodging the attack of Don Krieg and had jumped backwards for that.

 

Luffy’s feet hit against Pearl’s head so the Krieg pirate tumbled slightly. His baby brother landed next to him.

 

“That was close. This guy is annoying. He pulls out weapon after weapon. Does he think using as many weapons as possible is a way to show strength and win?”, Luffy sounded annoyed.

 

“Should I take over for you? I will melt his weapons for you~”, Ace offered and let flames dance around his hand.

 

“Should you really talk at a time like that? Something is wrong with this one”, Sanji interrupted their conservation.

 

Ace looked to Pearl again. The man was staring at his fingers. “That is… dangerous.” Suddenly blue flames were on the man and highlighted by these flame was blood which dropped from his noses.

 

“He is seriously just freaking out because of the blood?”

“What kind of a pirate is he that he isn’t able to see his one blood?”

 

The Krieg pirates were in a panic because of Pearl being on fire now. They screamed and shouted for the other one to stop. But they couldn’t calm him down.

 

Ace pushed Luffy behind him. Fire wouldn’t do anything to him. But his baby brother had never been one who liked it too hot. So putting a bit distance between the two would be good. Also, there was a chance the fire got out of hand and he didn’t know how well Luffy would deal with it despite being close to him.

 

So they had to stop the idiot quick before he set the restaurant and also their ship on fire.

 

But someone other was quicker than himself.

 

“He kicked Pearl-sama.”

“He injured Pearl-sama even more!”

“Isn’t he afraid of the fire?”

 

Sanji had kicked Pearl right in the face before dodging the counter-attack. The cook blew some smoke in the air. “Oi shitheads, what kind of chef would be afraid of fire?”

 

“So cool”, Luffy cheered behind him. Ace grinned. The cook was in for something after the battle. Luffy wouldn’t leave that easily without trying to get Sanji on board. But they should then work on the mouth the cook had. Luffy’s known amount of curse words should be limited.

 

Suddenly his baby brother moved from behind him. A big morning star was thrown at them. Well more at Sanji. Looked like Krieg wanted to take him out.

 

Luffy pushed the morning star back. Just using his hands. Even if his baby brother used Haki, he was going to feel how hot it was. It looked kinda too hot to touch for Luffy.

 

“Hot. Hot”, Luffy chanted and shook his hand to cool them down. But throwing through the morning star back had a nice side effect. A mast was broken and it fell down on Pearl knocking him out.

 

Well, that was something positive.  The annoying one was down and Krieg was going to fall down soon. As soon as Luffy was back on the track because his baby brother seemed really up for beating this idiot.

 

Or maybe the other would just run away as he did with Mihawk. Now that would be nice. Because Ace didn’t want to deal with this braggart any longer. He was itching to face the real strongest man in the world. A desire he hadn’t expressed in front of his brother and Law, yet, and it should stay that way until well… until they met the strongest man in the world.

 

Ace studied the man carefully.

 

Krieg seemed angry that his armour had been lightly cracked. The man had a tight grip on a spear-like weapon. The top seemed a bit strange. The thing was that Krieg seemed to have an arsenal of hidden weapons on his body and more. So Ace wouldn’t be surprised if the top of the spear had some secret weapons, too, or hidden dangers. Maybe he should warn his baby brother.

 

But one look at Luffy made Ace shake his head. His baby brother wouldn’t be happy if he pointed that out. Luffy had always wanted to do things his way when it came to battles. So Ace as his big brother shouldn’t help him until it became too dangerous for his baby brother.

 

So what should he do? The other pirates were weak… even weaker than those bandits Luffy and he had beaten up all the time with Sabo.

 

But they were all left to beat up. So Ace grinned and looked at them. “Well, who's next?”

 

~*~*~

 

Sanji could only stare.

 

He was shocked but also impressed. The blonde had never thought that this kid called Luffy was that strong despite looking and acting a bit(or maybe a lot) childish.

 

Despite every weapon, Krieg threw at Luffy. The boy didn’t back down and wasn’t hit very often. There were some scratches on Luffy’s arms and legs from a needle rain attack. But that didn’t bother the boy. The boy had even hit Krieg through a spiked shield.

 

It surprised him that there had been no blood. There should have been blood on the boy’s fist or on the shield. And why did the arm look black for a moment?

 

How was the kid so strong? And what exactly did the boy do?

 

“Watch them carefully. These brats aren’t afraid of dying. You see this in their eyes”, Zeff said next to him suddenly. The blonde looked surprised at the man who saved his life many years ago and took care of him since then.

 

He had heard this ‘Watch them carefully’ often or it was just ‘Watch carefully’. It meant that he could learn something from that or it would be important.

 

But Sanji couldn’t see how just watching the two black-haired ones’ battle teach him something. To be not afraid of dying didn’t help in a fight, did it?

 

“The green-haired risked his life for his dream. The older black-haired one is fighting all these guys because he supports his little brother. He would die just to protect his brother and what his brother is standing for. And the little one. He won’t back down from a fight to fulfil his dream. Even if people would laugh at him or just think he couldn’t do it”, Zeff said with crossed arms.

 

Dream? What was the kid’s dream again? The kid had said something about going to the Grandline. What exactly had Luffy said again?

 

**“We plan to reach the top and travelling to the New World while aiming to achieve our dreams.”**

**“I’m Luffy and I’ll be the one who explored the whole Grandline!”**

 

Exploring the whole Grandline? Travelling to the New World? Wait… His eyes widened.

 

Zeff had told him one time that if the One Piece did really exist, it would be in the second part of the Grandline. The New World.

 

Exploring the whole Grandline meant that Luffy was trying to find the One Piece. The treasure of the pirate king Gold Roger. The treasure whose finder would become the next pirate king.

 

Sanji stared at the kid who had beaten Krieg. A boy around seventeen-year-old and around half a metre smaller than Don Krieg had beaten the Pirate Fleet Admiral, Foul Play Krieg.

 

But something seemed to have gone wrong about the last attack from Luffy. The boy seemed so quick on his feet and had been jumping around the whole fight. But now Luffy fell straight towards the water.

 

“Luffy, fly! Fly, Luffy”, Ace shouted. But whatever the older wanted to tell the younger with that. Luffy didn’t seem able to do it. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw how Ace’s eyes widened and how the man wanted to jump into the ocean when the boy met the surface and sank quickly. But the old man held the older black-haired one back.

“You are not helping your brother with your inability to swim. You will probably both die.”

“But Luffy can’t swim neither!”

 

The voice of Ace sounded scared.

 

Sanji kicked his shoes off and jumped into the water.

 

Luffy had saved the Baratie risking his life during the fight against Don Krieg. So he wouldn’t let the boy die because he couldn’t swim. It would repay him in a strange way.    

 

 He had to save him. Quickly Sanji moved his arms and legs to dive deeper and faster. He caught the boy around his waist. Sanji was quite surprised how easy it was to bring Luffy back to the surface and on board the Baratie again. The blonde had suspected that the kid weighed more because he had seen how much the two black-haired brothers had eaten. But no, Luffy was rather light.

 

Ace was directly next to them when Sanji pulled them out of the water.

 

The older one shook his little brother until he was hit by Law. The doctor of the crew, that was Sanji’s guess, had come over. So the man had finished threatened the marimo.

 

“Don’t shake him like that, idiot. Move over and let me handle this. Do something useful and bring Zoro on our ship. But carefully. I had to get Bepo getting me some injections to knock him out. If you move Zoro and pull out some of the strings from the wounds, I’ll…” Law started to threatened but Ace just leant down and pecked the doctor’s lips.

“I’ll know what you would like to try so you don’t have to say it, Torao”, the fire user said and quickly went away.

 

The facial expression of Law was quite interesting. First, there was only pure shock. Like the black-haired didn’t believe what the other just had done. Then there was a light red on Law’s cheeks. It could be both embarrassment or anger.

 

But Sanji would never know as a cough got the doctor's attention. A cough from Luffy. This got Law into professional mode. The doctor mumbled something and Sanji was sure that he heard, that the other wanted to cut Krieg apart and sent him to the Marines.

~*~*~

 

“You really want to stay here, Gin?”, Sanji looked at the other one. “Yeah… I don’t think after meeting Mihawk… I’m ready for travelling again… I wasn’t even able to…”, Gin looked down on the water. He didn’t seem to be able to talk about his feelings completely. But it was fine. The man had his heart in the right place but just had decided to follow the wrong people.

 

“I already talked with the old man… He said it is fine as long as you work here, too. I can guarantee you that you will get some hits from the old man. He said once he teaches via hitting. He did mean it”, Sanji said. The blonde didn’t say that Zeff had only agreed to that when he finally got his ass off and started to chase his dream.

 

Sanji feared that it would make Gin feel bad that the blonde left so that the other had a place to stay. But to be true…

 

Since he had seen the fight between Luffy and Krieg and also talked a bit more with the crew (they stayed around because Zoro needed to rest some more and Luffy hadn’t completely recovered from the paralysing poison Krieg had on his needles) of the kid, a feeling had grown inside him. A desire to follow his dream. To find the All-Blue.

 

A smile ghosted over his lips when he remembered the talk last night with Luffy and Ace. The older brother gave his little brother a piggyback ride. Neither had laughed about the idea of an ocean where every fish from all over the world can be found. Both had commented on how much tasty food that would be. But what was the most remarkable of the conversation was Luffy’s statement “It’s a nice dream”. A simple statement, but… Sanji felt like it could also mean “Let’s make your dream come true”, because of the way Luff had said it.

 

And he was going to find it. This morning he had made up his mind. That was also before Zeff told him about this agreement. So it was truly fine for him to leave so that Gin could stay here.

 

“Take care of the old man for me”, Sanji said and lifted his backpack.

 

Many of his stuff was already on the ship of his new crew. Like all his cooking items. Because the kitchen might have looked fine, but the utensils weren’t in a good shape. It did make Sanji a bit wonder how they survived that long with Ace and Luffy on board.

 

Gin looked at him and nodded. “Thank you, Sanji. Thank you for everything.”

 

Sanji just waved at him and started to make his way towards Shippy, that was how Luffy had introduced the ship.

 

The other cook stood left and right leaving a path for him to walk through. He could hear Patty and Carne scream. The blonde cook swiftly dodged their attacks and knocked them out with one kick to each, before he was back on his way.

 

Luffy sat on the railing looking at him. “You don’t say goodbye?”, the boy asked confused.

“Don’t ask, Luffy. Some people don’t like saying goodbye”, Law said next to the straw-hatted one.

 

Sanji nodded and wanted to take the first step of the Baratie when he heard it.

 

“Sanji.”

 

Just his name. Just his name said by the old man. The old man who saved him all these years ago. The old man who taught him how to cook and how to fight. This one word made him froze.

 

“Don’t catch a cold.”

 

Sanji felt his underlip quiver. He fought with his tears but couldn’t keep them from running down his cheeks.

 

The blonde turned around and kneeled.

 

“Owner Zeff, thank you. Thank you for everything! I will never forget what you have done for me!”

 

He pressed his head against the wooden planks and sobbed. The old man had done so much for him and despite the way, he acted towards Zeff… the old man had become like a father to him. Even if he would never say this out loud. So now he was leaving his father figure.

 

Sanji could hear Patty and Carne now sobbing, too. That was when he lifted his head. Both of them were crying.

 

“I’m going to miss you!”

“Miss you, too damn it!”

 

Now the other cooks were sobbing, too.

 

Sanji didn’t know if he should cry or smile. Because seeing the others like that just showed him how much they cared for him. That they didn’t really want him to go but still somehow want him to go off on a journey to fulfil his dream.

 

“Let’s meet again, you shitty bastards!”

 

~*~*~

 

Bepo carefully poked the blonde who was now the cook of their crew. Sanji looked with one shocked eye at him after he had introduced himself.   

 

“What is wrong with the cook?”, Zoro asked and took a sip of his booze.

“I don’t know”, Bepo said and tilted his head.

 

“The bear can talk?!”

 

“I’m sorry”, the mink directly apologized and bowed slightly.

“You don’t need to apologize every time, Bepo. Get used to it. I think every crew member we will recruit until a certain point will think there is something strange going on when they first met you”, he heard Ace scolding him.

 

Bepo blinked innocently at the black-haired logia user. Wasn’t it impolite to not apologize to others for that?

 

“Stop scolding Bepo, you meanie”, Luffy piped up. Their future captain stood next to Zoro and had a small red ball in his left hand. Chouchou was jumping around next to Luffy’s legs. So that meant Luffy intended to play ball with the dog.

 

“Luffy, how about you take Bepo with you when you go below to play with Chouchou? I deal with the meanie and our shocked cook”, Law spoke up and with a bright grin, Luffy pulled Bepo after him.

“Great idea, Torao. Come on, Bepo. Let’s play”, the boy cheered and Bepo couldn’t help but smile, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there are now Luffy, Ace, Law, Bepo, Zoro, Chouchou and Sanji in the crew. Two more are coming before they leave the East Blue. I'm wondering if someone will guess them right. But not now~  
> Sanji was chosen as part of the crew because he can swim, fight, cook and also his behaviour is sometimes hilarious. I think he will fit perfectly in the typical daily life on 'Shippy'. 
> 
> So canneverremember, you were right with your guess ;)
> 
> Until next time ;)


	8. ~Chapter 7 – Fishy Detour with trouble~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there^^
> 
> Here it is the next chapter of 'A different journey'.
> 
> Before the chapter even if it will be a little spoiler maybe (I don't know), but do keep in mind that they travelled with Garp for nearly ten years. That's all I want to say before the chapter. Well, not really, I want to thank you guys for all the favos/follows/kudos, I got. I really appreciate this silent form of support, too ;) (Even if I like to ramble by answering to reviews^^)

“We will dock in Loguetown and get everything we need. Food, wood for repairing the ship, Log Poses. Also, Zoro can get some new swords there. I heard the shops are pretty decent from the perspective of going to the Grandline ”, Law said and pointed on an island on their map.

 

“I don’t think we need to stock up the food, yet. Even with these two black holes our food supply should last for around two weeks. So the marimo could buy his swords when we are on the Grandline”, Sanji said. The last words sounded a bit bitter.

 

For some reasons, Law didn’t know, yet, the cook and the swordsman always clashed. These two could be like children when they were in the same room. Something that irked the surgeon. Especially since Ace had started to use it to tease him by appointing Law to the mother figure. The logia user had now to get used to being hitten more on the head.

 

 But that wasn’t important at the moment.

 

Law shook his head. He wanted to start explaining, but Bepo already started.

 

“Loguetown is on the last island before we enter the Grandline. It is close to Reverse Mountain, which lays the entrance. So it is the last place before we don’t know how long it will take us until the next island”, the polar bear mink stated. “The maps we have from the Grandline are only from some islands, which only shows the island a bit from the sea around it.”

 

Sanji looked curiously at them. There was a question in the visible eye which the cook didn’t need to say. Because Law already started to answer: “To navigate on the Grandline, we need a Log Pose. A normal compass doesn’t work on the Grandline because of the magnetic fields of the islands. A Log Pose notices the magnetic waves of the island and it locks onto them. So a Log Pose always points to the next island, but you don’t know how long it will take to get there.”

 

“But it will always take us a step closer to the New World which means becoming pirates and chasing after the One Piece”, Luffy cheered with a grin.

 

That was typical. He had wanted Luffy to sit by to learn about the responsibility as a captain. But it looked like the younger one wasn’t really paying attention to the important details. Law sighed and poked against the smaller one’s forehead.

 

“Stay focus on the topic of this meeting, Luffy”, he scolded him lightly. Law then turned back to Sanji, but he could out of the corner of his eyes that a pout formed itself on Luffy’s lips.

 

“Just out of curiosity, you said that you have to fulfil a promise first before you can hoist the colour. Mind sharing a bit more details, so it is possible to be prepared in case something goes wrong?”, the blonde asked.

 

That surprised Law a bit. The details of the promise hadn’t been made clear to either Zoro or Sanji, yet. Both only knew that they could only hoist the colour when they reached the New World.

 

“Jii-chan made us promise that we won’t hoist it until we are in the New World”, Luffy said. He could hear the hint of disappointment in the younger one’s voice. Law sighed and patted Luffy’s head.

 

“He wants us to stay low for reasons we can’t tell you, yet. Not because we don’t trust you. Luffy’s instinct is incredible when it comes down to choosing people, you can trust. But… for your own safety as well”, the surgeon said. “Also, be lucky if you never met Luffy’s grandpa. The man is bat-shit crazy but also really strong. He would probably have taken on Krieg and his men alone without getting hurt and one shot all of them, either at the same time or one after another. He has also a very bad habit of either throwing stuff at you or hit you when you do something wrong or for training matters.” Law shivered slightly as he remembered how Garp decided that they were using cannonballs for their Observation Haki.  

 

“Nothing hurts more than Jii-chan’s fist of love”, Luffy mumbled and buried his face in Chouchou’s fur. The dog had been on the boy’s lap since the meeting had started. It was a way to keep Luffy to sit still.

 

Sanji looked at them with an open mouth. It seemed as the other wanted to ask something but a loud noise outside interrupted them. What were these two now doing on watch-out-duty?

 

Law stood up and went outside. He could hear that the other followed him.

 

Neither Ace nor Zoro was in sight. But there were two men with each a sword. Great… they got boarded and now had to deal with these two because two certain idiots weren’t doing their job.

 

“Johnny, Yosaku, what are you doing here?”

 

Looked who was talking now… wait… Zoro knew these two idiots.

 

“You know them, Zoro?”, Ace appeared with the green-haired swordsman behind them. Law noticed how despite not having dealt with the stowaways, yet, the Alpha was prepared to fight.

 

“Yeah, I know them. They are bounty hunters. I teamed up with them sometime. They are fine”, Zoro explained, before he looked at the two. “No one has a bounty on board. So you shouldn’t have any business to do here.”

 

“That’s right, Zoro-aniki."

“We heard on our way to capture Arlong that Zoro-aniki got in a big fight.”

“So we decided to check on you and get the full details.”

“Because there is no way that Zoro-aniki would loose.”

 

Law didn’t really listen to them. These two talked like you would expect twins to do some time or on rare occasions Luffy and Ace if something important to them like food was involved. It was enough for him to deal with these rare occasions and since two were Zoro’s friend the swordsman could deal with it.

 

“You know where fishy is?”, Luffy suddenly asked and let Chouchou down.

 

Fishy…? Wait, that was the nickname Luffy had given to… “You guys are after Arlong?” Law was surprised.

 

Neither Yosaku nor Johnny looked like they would be able to do well in a fight against a Fishman. Well… Luffy didn’t look like it either but his step-brother/cousin had a much stronger aura than these two.

 

“Yeah, we heard where he has his base and thought about checking the area first before we attack”, the black-haired one of the duo explained.

 

“Mind if we tag along? We wanted to check Fishy out for some rumours we heard about Fishman”, Ace spoke up. He could feel how the other seemed more relaxed now.

 

Law took a side-glance at the youngest of them. He knew that the only reason why Ace had relaxed this quick was Luffy’s behaviour.

 

The youngest had the best instinct with people, at least if they were worthy to trust. So since Luffy didn’t get all defence with them. They should be fine.

 

Law looked back to the two bounty hunters.

 

Johnny and Yosaku mumbled something to each other before they looked at them and nodded. “We would be honoured to meet and travel with Zoro-aniki and his friends.”

 

This got Luffy cheering. “Sanji, Food. We need a party”, he happily demanded.

 

“Well, looks like we are really going to need the stop in Loguetown even more after the detour”, Law said.

 

He could hear Sanji sigh. The surgeon would have pitied the cook a bit but… he had been with Luffy and Ace for nine years now and had to deal with their appetite that long as well. So it was nice to not have to deal with it the whole time ever again.

 

~*~*~

 

“Conomi Islands are in sight”, Bepo shouted from the crow’s nest.

 

“Don’t dock somewhere close to the village”, Ace ordered.

 

For some reason, he had a bad feeling about these islands and he didn’t know why.

 

This only grew when Law next to him mumbled something which sounded like the word ‘bad’. His mate had been through a lot with him and Luffy during the time they were on Grap’s ships. So when Law said ‘bad’ now it was very bad to a normal person which meant it could be dangerous.

 

The surgeon was looking with a telescope to the islands.

 

“Are we in trouble, yet?”, Ace asked.

 

“Not yet. But it is probably as I thought. There is something wrong about Arlong’s low bounty”, Law said and offered him the telescope to look.

 

Ace didn’t know what he should expect when he took it. He lifted it to his eyes and was … well shocked at the sight of the village.

 

The houses were upside down. The windows and doors were broken or left hanging in a weird angle. The only slightly positive thing was that there were no people who had to deal with these living conditions. But… the thought was followed by a bitter one. Where there even people who survived this attack?

 

“You think Arlong and his group have done this?”, Ace asked and lowered the telescope to look at Law. The other one nodded.

“There is no other person in the East Blue who has the power to do that. Well, no other person we know of. Also, according to the information Johnny and Yosaku had, Arlong has been in this area for around ten years. So he had come here shortly after his stay in Impel Down”, the surgeon said.

 

“So we better be careful because the bounty most likely doesn’t say anything about his true potential? Maybe we should leave someone else with Bepo on the ship then.”

 

“To be true, I thought we could hide the ship and this time take Bepo with us. I know we are still in the East Blue and people will be shocked if they see a mink. But when dealing with Fishman, Bepo’s Electro technique will be very helpful. Also, I don’t think some of the others want to be left behind.”     

 

Ace thought about it and then nodded. Yeah, none of the others would like to stay behind if there was a chance of fighting against a Fishman while being on the island.

 

“We could tie Zoro to the ship”, he then offered more as a joke than a serious idea. Law glared at him. So the other hadn’t understood that it was a joke. Now since Law glared him like that. It only meant …

“I swear if Shippy gets damaged because of one stupid idea from you, you repair Shippy yourself and you will sleep on the floor!” There it was. A typical threat from Law to him. Luckily, the surgeon didn’t threaten him to cut him open any longer.

 

But wait… “You support Luffy’s stupid name for the ship?!” Ace could only stare at the other in shock. He never expected that form his mate.

 

“You know there could be worse. Remember the one time your grandpa asked to name the new marine ship?

 

The logia user thought for a moment before he started to laugh because of that particular memory.

 

_~Flashback~_

 

A nine-year-old Luffy, a twelve-year-old Ace and a thirteen-year-old Law stood with Cora-san and Garp in front of the new dog-themed marine ship.

 

“The doggy looks like Ji-chan’s mask”, the youngest declared loud.

 

Garp laughed out loud and petted Luffy’s head. “Want to name it, Luffy?”, the oldest of the group asked.

 

“I’m allowed to name your ship?”, Luffy looked up in surprise but was cheerful.

 

“Be ready for a strange name”, Ace whispered to Law. The slightly taller one didn’t change his expression. So there wouldn’t be a vocal reaction from the other.

 

Ace rolled his eyes and looked back to his adoptive grandfather.

 

Garp had lifted Luffy on his shoulders and was now standing directly in front of the ship.

 

“Now crash the bottle on that point and name it.”

 

Ace wanted to laugh. Their grandpa let Luffy just name the ship without hearing the suggestion first.

 

His baby brother tilted his head. Then he crashed the bottle on the ship. “I’m naming you bad doggy.”

 

Ace was on the ground laughing about the name.

 

_~Flashback ends~_

 

“The shitty geezer never learned after that”, Ace said with a grin.

 

“See, I think the name is fine. I don’t think our ship will las long enough when we don’t find a shipwright in the East Blue or early on the Grandline”, Law mumbled and touched the railing.

 

Ac sighed. “Pity… I somehow hope we are able to reach the New World with the ship. After all, we saved up for this since we promised each other to travel together seven years ago”, he said and looked a bit sad at the ship.

 

“Tell the others to prepare to dock. We will carefully check out the village and then the area”, Law said. “And make sure you hold Luffy’s hand.”

 

Ace looked at him in shock. The surgeon couldn’t mean that. But one glance at the other told him how serious the taller one was.

 

“I’m not Luffy’s babysitter!”

“I know. But you are his big brother and don’t dare to deny it, but you have a brother-complex. It makes me sometimes wonder if you would want to mate with Luffy.”

 

Law’s voice had a teasing tone. Ace felt his cheeks heat up. Yes, he admit that he had a brother-complex. But who could blame him for not developing one after they had lost a brother? Luffy was his precious baby brother. But it wasn’t that bad!

 

“Luffy is my baby brother. I would never do that with Luffy. In case, Luffy should stay innocent until he is thirty!”

Law chuckled. “Isn’t that kinda mean? I mean as far as we know Luffy already had a crush on someone, we didn’t meet because we were sick. But you saw how sad he was that he couldn’t really say goodbye. Are you going to survive a pouty, sad Luffy?”

 

“Stop teasing me or I’ll show you later…”, Ace let his sentence open in the end. But he had stepped closer to Law. His lips slighted over a certain spot on the taller one’s neck. A delicious gasp escaped the surgeon and he felt the other’s hand on his shoulders.

 

“Bastard.”

 

Ace grinned. He seriously started to love teasing the other this way. “You know you love me.” A groan was his only answer which made him chuckle.

 

~*~*~

 

The part of the Conomi Islands where they had docked and had hidden their ship was empty. There wasn’t anything in the closer area except the destroyed town. So after a short discussion, they decided to look around in a bigger area.

 

The result was a tangerine plantation.

 

Law sighed. Why did it have to be food? They had to hold Ace and Luffy back because the soft smell of the plants was delicious and only made their black-holes of a stomach growl. Law hit both of them slightly on the head. “Don’t just go after every food you guys smell. Someday it will get us into trouble. How about you start thinking with your brains first instead of thinking your stomachs”, he scolded them.

 

The reactions of the two brothers were different.

 

Ace looked at him with a challenging glance and some kind of a smirk which reminded Law of the moments when the other teased him after they started this ‘relationship’.

 

Luffy instead just pouted and whined: “But Torao, they smell so nice.” Law groaned and wanted to say something.

 

But a female voice spoke up first. “You can buy some. For the right price of course.” A light blue-haired woman appeared in front of them. She had a friendly smile on her face and winked at them during her last two words.

 

“I’ll pay any price you say”, Sanji said and even kneeled in front of the woman.

“Oi, ero-cook, don’t think about spending all of the money tangerines. I still want some booze…”, Zoro said.

 

Law sighed. He had a feeling that this would end in one of their discussions again.

 

“What did you say, you stupid marimo? These tangerines are much more worthy to buy then some stupid sake.”

 

How he hated being right about these two.

 

“Don’t even think about fighting against each other. Otherwise …” Law let the threat open. He was sure that they both know what he would do. So he didn’t need to say it in front of this woman who would probably be a bit sceptic if he threatened his crew to cut them apart.

 

“We would like to buy one bag. If these two black holes say it smells good they have to be worthy. Also, mind telling us a bit of the destroyed town at the beach close by. It looks like a monster rampaged there”, Law said to the woman.

 

She had a sceptical look in her eyes. It made him wonder if she would tell them or not.

 

“How about you wait inside? I’ll prepare you tangerines. It will take a few minutes”, the blue-haired woman said.

 

So they waited. Sanji and Zoro were still biggering. But that was acceptable because they didn’t try to beat each other up and he was able to ignore them so he could think in peace while Ace kept Luffy busy and Bepo looked around curiously but didn’t move. Johny and Yosaku just stood in one corner and watched Zoro’s and Sanji’s biggering.

 

Law wasn’t really sure if they would get the story from Nojiko, as the blue-haired introduced herself. She had an unsure look in her eyes which hinted at an inner conflict.

 

 But Nojiko surprised him when she came back inside with a bag and started to talk: “You don’t know how right you are with your suggestion of a monster. It will probably be the best for you to leave as quickly as possible before they notice you.” She did look a bit worried.

 

“So your guess was right that Arlong and his crew are responsible for that, Law”, Ace said, but Law lifted a hand. To make sure that the others didn’t speak. Nojiko already looked a bit shocked that they seemed to know exactly who the monster was.

 

“Just out of curiosity. Arlong has been here for quite some time, right?” A nod was all he needed as an answer before he carried on: “So what happens when some Marines come here? Arlong is a pirate with a bounty. They won’t just let him be if they knew what he is doing.” Law’s eyes were fixed on Nojiko.

 

The woman sighed and there was a sad gleam in her eyes. “I don’t remember seeing any Marine ships in the last years… well, before last week. There had been a ship close by. We were quite surprised because after what happened to Gosa Village, the destroyed one, we didn’t have any hope left to be helped by them… But as quickly as the little hope to be saved appeared, it disappeared as well… the ship didn’t last long against Arlong and his crew…”

 

Law nodded. So the marines around here seemed to be powerless against Arlong. He frowned. Even if the ship had been destroyed and everyone on board killed, the headquarter in the East Blue would know. A week without the sighting of another Marine ship to investigate seemed off.

 

Especially with the rumours, Johny and Yosaku had told, about Arlong being in this part of the East Blue, Law would have suspected that they would call for higher-ups to investigate. Because that was the standard.

 

If there was an opponent too strong to be beaten by the Marines in the Blue, they would either get help from another Blue or directly from Grandline Marines.

 

The one week seemed also too long since this stupid “Absolute Justice”-fraction within in the Marine had gotten stronger. This kind of people wouldn’t let any pirate or person, who they saw as a criminal, run wild that easily. Even if it meant that some of the more radical examples of “Absolute Justice” had no problem killing or hurting innocent civilians as long as they reached their goal.

 

It was laughable to even think that these Marines would be fine with letting a pirate group stay anywhere on an island with a headquarter.

 

So there had to be more… much more than they thought.

 

Maybe he should call Cora-san. His adoptive father should still be in the East Blue with Garp. Maybe they had some more information or they could help the people here, because as strong as Arlong was, Law believed that Monkey D Garp was stronger. And that way, they wouldn’t be the ‘heroes’ again. Something that would make Luffy happy to be not called a hero.

 

“Hey, stay away from the mikans!”

 

A loud female voice interrupted his thoughts.

 

Nojiko looked shocked before she hurried outside.

 

Law jumped up to hold Sanji back. “We don’t rush in until we know what is going on”, he ordered.

 

Out of the corner of his eyes, Law saw Ace snarling. So the other had a little trouble with this order but from the way he moved, the surgeon knew, that his mate would follow the order.

 

The scene they met outside was definitely not what he was expecting.

 

Marines went around the tangerine plants to search for something. A young woman with short orange hair was chasing after them to make them stop. So she must be the one who had screamed or well more shouted.

 

But it seemed like her efforts would be useless.

 

“Captain Nezumi, we found the treasure.”

 

“Chichichi, good work. Now, little girl, you should be lucky that we don’t charge you for your little acts as a thief. So we only take the treasure. It should be close to 100,000,000 Berry.”

 

Nojiko, the young woman and a man with a pinwheel on his head looked shocked at the Marine.

 

Law narrowed his eyes. This captain definitely didn’t have a devil fruit and he also couldn’t see the treasure. So how was the man able to guess its content with such an accuracy that it seemed like a shock to the owner.

 

“How do you know the amount?”, Nojiko asked tonelessly.

“If you know the exact amount, then you must know the reason, too. Nami collected this money for the village. To free us from Arlong! Why are you doing this instead of capturing Arlong and his crew?”, the pinwheel man shouted, but he was hit by a marine.

 

“Don’t question us. We know what are we doing”, the marine captain said with a cruel grin. It made Law feel anger deep down inside. These types of marines were even worth than these believers of ‘Absolute Justice’. This marine captain belonged to the type of greedy, power-hungry, easy corrupted ones.

 

“You are working with Arlong…”, the orange-haired woman mumbled. “You are working with Arlong! Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to know the exact amount!”, Nami now shouted and attacked the marine captain. At least, she tried.

 

The young woman was pushed out of the way by Nojiko who took a shoot for her.

 

“Nojiko!”

 

“Luffy, no!”

The voice of Ace next to him made Law turn his head to see what the youngest was up to. Only to find out that Luffy wasn’t with them any longer.

 

The youngest of their group had already sent the marine captain flying with a Haki infused punch.

 

“You don’t deserve to be called Marine!”, Luffy shouted. The hands clenched to fists.

 

Well, that meant they will be in lots of trouble when Garp heard that.

 

He could already feel the fist of the crazy old vice admiral, Luffy and Ace called their grandpa.

 

And to make it wors, the fight wasn’t over, yet.

 

It just started with taking out corrupted Marines.

 

~*~*~

 

Luffy was angry. He didn’t care what his brother and the other screamed after him.

 

He was running straight to the place called Arlong Park.

 

What was wrong with the people who had “power” on this island?

 

The Marines didn’t protect the innocent. No, instead of doing that they were helping the bad pirates. These Marines were a disgrace to his grandfather’s and his adopted granduncle’s work.

 

So he had a good reason to hit them. Luffy believed that his grandpa would have hit the Marine, too.

 

And the Fishman… from what he heard they acted… they acted a bit like Celestial Dragon! Perhaps not as wors as them but close.

 

It made Luffy angry because he had heard the stories about Fisher Tiger from his grandpa.

 

A man who had invaded Mariejor and had freed many slaves despite their race. A man who then had become a pirate with many former slaves to protect the citizens on his home island.

 

Fisher Tiger was a Fishman that his grandfather respected despite the piracy. The man had only attacked when needed and never killed.

 

His grandpa had even ignored the pirate ship when it was in their sight.

 

“Why should I try to catch them for some people who don’t know anything about morals?”

 

That had been his grandpa’s words to his crew every time the boat of the Sun pirates had been in their sight. His grandpa didn’t want to catch because he didn’t want to support the slavery done by the Celestial Dragons. He also wanted to give people a chance for a peaceful life despite their heritage or their race. Something he shared with his granduncle. Both of them did a lot against slavery even if it wasn’t known to the world because then they would risk their ranks within in the Marine and wouldn’t be able to help people as much as they did now.

 

These Marines and Fishman acted against everything Luffy had learned from his grandpa and his granduncle about this justice they believe in. He had forgotten how they called it… but he couldn’t let these pirates and marines go on, because they went against the dream of a better place for everyone. He couldn’t this happen.

 

He was fine with people going against the World Government to protect people dear to them. He would even support them when he wasn’t called a hero then.

 

But… hurting people who couldn’t defend themselves, disrespecting his grandpa’s dream (even if they didn’t know about it) was something he couldn’t let happen.

 

Luffy could already see the gate to the so-called Arlong Park. He wrinkled his nose. It did remind him of the amusement park his grandpa had taken Ace, Law and him once.

 

The park had been nice… but the environment hadn’t been.

 

Luffy shook his head slightly. He didn’t have time to think about the amusement park and he definitely didn’t have time to do “sight-seeing”.

 

He clenched his right hand into a fist and let Haki colour his arm in a dark black.

 

With one punch the gate was shattered and thrown backwards.

 

Luffy stopped in its place. His hat shadowed his eyes, in which seemed to burn a fire.

 

A Fishman with a long nose looked annoyed at him.

 

“What does a pipsqueak like you want here?”

 

Luffy cracked his knuckles slightly. “I’m going to kick your ass!”

 

The statement seemed to surprise the Fishmen or not. Laughter could be heard. So they didn’t take him seriously. Well, that would be an advantage for him.

 

“Take the brat out quickly.”

 

Two Fishmen started to run towards him. He easily dodged their attacks. But when they tried to cut him he was pushed down from behind by a human hand.

 

He could feel the slashes go over his head and heard the sizzling noise of fire. His attackers gasped.

 

“I would appreciate it if you don’t try to cut my little brother apart.”

 

Looked like the others caught up. Damn, it would have been fun to fight them all on his own. But well… at least his big brother didn’t sound angry at him. To be true he sounded more amused than everything else.

 

“The attacks went right through him.”

“He is made out of fire?”

 

The attackers sounded surprised. So they weren’t familiar with devil fruits. Nice, that would make it even easier. He took a quick turn under his brother’s hand and kicked the two shocked opponents away.

 

“Stop being shocked. I have to say it is indeed a surprise to see a devil fruit user here in the East Blue. But remember, they are weak to water. So how about we throw them into the ocean to teach them a lesson. Shahahahaha.”

 

The long-nosed Fishman laughed.

 

Luffy growled in anger. He hated opponents like that. He only wanted to crush them more than. He felt the hand of his brother patting his shoulder.

 

A slight grin appeared on Luffy’s lips. He knew what his big brother wanted to tell him with that. He tapped his left foot quickly on the ground before he speeded over to the laughing Fishman and sent him flying with a punch.

 

“Arlong-san!”

 

So this one was Arlong. The man who controlled all of this. Arlong snarled at them. He did look kinda angry.

 

“Arlong-san, let us deal with them. Perhaps Mohmoo will finish them even before we need to do something”, a black-haired Fishman said.

 

Another one with six arms stepped forward and used his mouth to make some trumpet-like sounds.

 

Form the ocean surfaced a big sea king which reminded Luffy a bit of a cow.

 

“Ace, look. How much meat would we get from that?”, the straw-hatted boy said with a grin.

“I wonder how it would taste”, Ace spoke with a thoughtful voice. But flames were already dancing around his hand.

 

“Stop thinking about food, you two idiots, when you decide to start a fight”, Law’s annoyed voice cut through the air.

 

The surgeon stood in place of the gate, which Luffy had destroyed. Right and left from Law stood Sanji and Zoro. Behind them was Bepo who seemed ready for a fight, too.

 

All four of them seemed prepared. Zoro even had the swords from Johny and Yosaku who tired to hold the villagers back.

 

“Aye!”, Bepo shouted and hit the big sea king cow with an Electro enhanced kick.

 

The creature let a painful sound, which made Luffy shudder, out, before it slowly sank back under the surface.

 

The boy felt pity for the monster because it only seemed to be used as a tool for the Fishman. Despite it being closer related to them.

 

But Bepo’s attack had one advantage. The Fishman seemed shocked how easy the sea king had been defeated. So they weren’t familiar with Minks. This would give Bepo a great advantage in fighting them when he could get close to them.

 

The Fishman captain screamed angrily. This got their opponents out of their shock and they attacked.

 

“Try not to have too much fun”, Ace teased him and heated up a blade which would have scratched him.

“Meanie”, Luffy only answered and kicked their opponent.

 

During the fight, it became clear that there were three main fights going on.

 

One was between this long black-haired ray fish (if Luffy remembered it right) and Sanji. Even if Luffy was a bit away from them, he could still hear the Fishman boosting about his strength. Something about being a level 40 practitioner of this martial art and being superior over Sanji. Even if it was clear that the blonde cook was able to hold himself against the Fishman in the fight.

 

The second fight was Zoro against an octopus who felt kinda nice, well at least he did have honour. The Fishman introduced himself as Hatchan and was the second best swordsman on Fishman Island. The octopus fought with six heavy looking swords but despite that and the fact that Zoro hadn’t recovered fully, yet, the fight looked even.

 

It made him grin proudly. The two crew members they had picked up in the East Blue were already strong enough to hold their own against Fishman on the land. So the transition in power difference between opponents in the East Blue and opponents in paradise wouldn’t be too difficult for them.

 

Luffy had to giggle about Bepo’s fight with a smelt-whiting Fishman. The guy shot water from his mouth like a pistol. But Bepo was too quick for the other. The polar bear mink landed a few hits on the Fishman which only seemed to piss him off more. It made Luffy a bit wonder why Bepo didn’t use Electro because he was sure that the other would one-shot his opponent. 

 

But he didn’t have the time to think about it or even look how Ace and Law were handling the other members of the crew because Arlong attacked him.

 

There was a dangerous gleam in the eyes of the Fishman captain. It only seemed to get worse when he dodged every attack delivered in his direction.

 

Luffy had a very uneasy feeling about this. It wasn’t that he thought that he wouldn’t be able to win a fight against the other. No, he felt bad about Arlong!

 

Something he hadn’t felt when he first had caught a glimpse of the eyes. What could be the reason for this change? It must have happened in the last few minutes.

 

Wait…. It couldn’t be the punch or the fact that they were able to compete with them in fights. That couldn’t be the reason, right?

 

“Stop dodging, you pipsqueak!”, Arlong sounded angry while he still tried to hurt him. Was the other angry because he can’t land a hit on him?

 

Well, if it was that way. He should lead Arlong away from the others. Sure Law and Ace could use Haki. Sanji, Bepo and Zoro were also quite good at reading their opponents but… they still had their own fights to fight. So he would only put them into danger when he let Arlong stay close to them.

 

“If you want to hit me, you need to be faster”, Luffy teased with a grin. The pure intention to just piss off this man more on his mind.

 

And it worked well. Because the movements of the Fishman got angrier and even easier to predict for him. This fight just became a little easier because of his speed advantage.

 

~*~*~

 

Ace grinned when they were victorious. Law had kneeled down to take care of Zoro who had won but was now suffering the effect of pushing him more than his body was able to at the moment.

 

Ace would feel pity for the swordsman when Law started to scold him for not taking care enough. But well it was nice to see to someone else getting scolded by his mate.

 

Ace looked to Bepo and Sanji who seemed fine except being a bit tired after fighting against the Fishman.

 

That was good. With this crew, they would be able to pass the first half of the Grandline. Only a shipwright would be nice to make sure their ship would last as well.

 

Ace turned to the building. It was the only thing left which demonstrated the power of the Fishman. He grinned and set in on fire.

 

He might have respect for other races but not for bad pirates. Heritage be damned in this case.

 

A devilish grin on his face he turned away from the building.

 

But then stopped…

 

Where was his baby brother?

 

His eyes wandered around and widened when he didn’t catch a glimpse of a straw hat or a bright grin.

 

He felt a panic started to rise inside him. Luffy wouldn’t be inside the building he just set on fire, wouldn’t he?

 

Then he heard it. Rumbling sounds which hinted a fight coming out of the building he just set on fire!

 

 Oh shit…

 

“Law, please tell me … Luffy… Luffy isn’t inside the building.”

 

He felt something hit him… He probably deserved it.

 

“You idiot, check before you set a building on fire!”, Law scolded him.

 

That was all he needed to hear to know that his precious baby brother was inside.

 

“Sanji, Bepo, make sure everyone stays safe. I’ll get Luffy”, he screamed.

 

How stupid could he have been to not check where Luffy was?

 

His baby brother had developed a strange fear of fire since the fire in the Grey Terminal. Small ones Luffy could handle. But this was going to a big one and Luffy was inside a building. He was sure his baby brother wouldn’t be able to move any longer he would be trapped by the fire.

 

Ace took the first steps to run inside but stopped when something well more someone flew out of a window on one of the higher floors, which the flames hadn’t reached, yet.

 

It was Arlong.

 

The Fishman crashed into a wall close to the sea entrance and stayed there. Most likely not even conscious any longer.

 

Then he heard it. A very light noise he had grown sensitive for. It made him feel eased and he looked to his left side to see his baby brother who had landed on his feet.

 

The two pairs of transparent wings with a red-brownish colour near Luffy’s back were still showing but also slowly disappearing.

 

Ace didn’t notice the reaction of their crew members. He was just happy that Luffy was outside the building. Ace pulled his younger brother in a hug which got him a confused look.

 

“I’m sorry…”, he whispered in Luffy’s ear.

 

“Huh? Why are you sorry? Did you have your doubts again?”

 

Ace couldn’t believe the air-head… He hits baby brother on the head lightly.

 

“Everything is all right. How about we just celebrate our victory?”

 

~*~*~

 

Nezumi was angry. How could this low-life pirate scum destroy his business with Arlong and beat him up twice?

 

He growled. He lost a lot of money because of them. He was going to make them pay.

 

Making sure that there was a bounty on their heads or at least one of them would be the first step.

 

Three of the crew had a devil fruit. He may not know which type but in the right places one could get a lot of money for devil fruit users. Maybe he could tip a friend of and get lots of money from the deal.

 

A smirk graced his lips. He was going to be rich because of them or they will be punished for what they are.

 

Low-life pirate scum.

 

~*~*~

 

On the next day, there were three new wanted posters in the newspaper.

 

All three showed black-haired males. One being a teenager and the two others being young adults.

 

One of the young adults with a with northern-style fur hat with black spots showed the photographer the middle finger, which had an A tattoo on it, and had a very annoyed expression. But the lips showed the hint of a smirk.

 

_Trafalgar Law 25,000,000_

 

The other young adult wore an orange cowboy hat with two smiles on it. The young man had a devilish grin on his face and in the background was a burning building.

 

_Portgas D Ace 30,000,000_

 

The picture of the teen was friendly. He looked over his shoulder in the camera. A big grin on his face and one hand on a straw hat. A bit blurry in the background was something orange with an angry expression.

 

_Monkey D Luffy 35,000,000_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please read.  
> I can't promise you that I can keep my update-schedule for this story because well stuff in life and being a little busy and a little too lazy to type my outlines and edit them a little there and then in the evening. But I promise you that I won't stop writing it. After all, I have written down ideas for "arcs" which will happen in paradise and even in the New World there are already some. 
> 
> The other thing. Their bounties. If only judged by power, they would all have the same bounty. But since Ace set a building without any real reason for the marines at least on fire and Luffy had hit a marine twice. They have a higher bounty.  
> I hope that fits. Otherwise, I'm open for suggestions on better bounty fits. I'll just find the concept a bit confusing how the marines really judge about the height...
> 
> So until next time ^^


	9. ~Chapter 8 – Hoist the colour~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm back again^^
> 
> This chapter is my personal favourite for now. Because well~ I won't tell you in the author notes at the beginning xD That would spoiler you a bit. So I'll keep this note short and just say, enjoy the chapter^^

Law had to suppress a laugh. It was quite funny to see how much trouble Sanji seemed to have with Luffy’s devil fruit.

 

“You know, Luffy rarely transforms completely. It’s only the wings he would use more often and perhaps the eyes or some hybrid-stuff”, he said amused. Sanji glared at him.

 

“I don’t see how that should make it better that he is a …” “He can’t control his size. He may have great control over the body parts he transforms or mixes. But when he transforms completely his whole body is around 1.2 metres long which means he has a wingspan from around 2 metres. You saw how big they were when he only transform part of his back to be able to fly”, Ace interrupted the cook and added with an amused grin: “That is a lot bigger than the normal species. So you can’t tell me you are afraid of a 10 centimetres long insect if Luffy would get it under control.”

 

It was clear to see on the Logia user’s face that he was amused about the fact that Sanji is afraid of bugs. Well, if Law hadn’t misunderstood, Sanji was only afraid of them when they reached a certain length.

 

Luffy only stood by and watched the discussion. “If Sanji is afraid, does that now mean that Sanji and I can’t be friends any longer because I am an insect zoan?”, the future-captain asked and blinked innocently.

 

Oh shit, Law knew this glance. This was a very dangerous glance. Because it gave Luffy a puppy look. A kicked puppy look. And this was the look that triggered Ace’s brother complex and also Law himself couldn’t resist wanting to hurt the person who was the reason for that.

 

“No”, Sanji said quickly. “I still want to be your friend… it’s just…” The blonde did look nervous.

 

Law sighed. Maybe he should help him out. After all, Sanji was a crew member and had proved to be a very good addition.

 

“You know, we could try to cure you of this fear. That way we can also make Luffy train more so that he can become a smaller dragonfly”, the surgeon suggested. He noticed how unsure Sanji looked at him. But Luffy seemed cheerful.

 

“That means Sanji and I can remain friends”, the straw-hatted boy cheered and jumped a little up and down. “Ne, Sanji, I’m hungry. Can we have some snacks?”

 

Typical Luffy…But it did seem to make Sanji calm. Law studied Luffy and smirked. The boy maybe was hungry all the time but this time he asked to help Sanji. It did show that Luffy was learning a bit how to help his crew member.

 

But before Sanji went to the kitchen the newscrow was heard.

 

Everyone was quite curious if there would be a report about Conomi Island. Law hoped not. Otherwise, they were in trouble.

 

When he unfolded the paper the wanted posters fell to the ground. His eyes widened slightly as he recognised three very familiar faces on the posters.

 

Oh shit… Garp was going to kill them.

 

~*~*~

 

During the time Ace and Luffy had been with Garp, Dadan had made it a routine to visit Makino’s bar once a week.

 

Just to share stories about their little brats, who were now grown up and travelling on their own, or to get new information about them.

 

The bandit leader would never admit it but she missed them a lot. Even if they caused her lots of trouble. But still, they were her brats.

 

With a nice conversation and a nice bottle of sake on her mind, Dadan entered the bar.

 

To her surprise, there were much more people than usual. It seemed like they were celebrating something.

 

“Ah, Dadan-san, I have to show you something”, Makino said cheerfully and waved her over to a free bar stool, which the barmaid seemed to have reserved for her.

 

Dadan was quite surprised about her behaviour. It was normal but something told the bandit leader that it was a bit happier than normal.

 

“So what is going on, Makino?”, Dadab asked when she sat down.

 

The green-haired barmaid only smiled and laid three wanted posters on the counter in front of her.

 

All three showed black-haired teens or young adults.

 

Dadan’s eyes widened. Two of them were her brats. Ace and Luffy.

 

“They have reached the New World already?”, she asked even if she didn’t believe it.

 

These were her brats, they were talking about. They attracted lots of trouble. Even if Law was quite good keeping them out of trouble, there was a limit of what the oldest of the trio could handle. And Ace and Luffy would be able to push it over the limit quite easily.

 

“No, the article said the fought against some Marine on the Conomi Islands. It was briefly mentioned that they also beat a pirate named Arlong who had a bounty around 20,000,000 berries”, Makino told her.

 

Dadan felt a grin on her lips. She looked at the wanted posters again. Both of her brats looked quite happy in the pictures. Also, they beat someone worth 20,000,000 berries. She felt… proud.

 

But wait… Conomi Islands. If she remembered it right. These islands were still in the East Blue.

 

Dadan started to laugh. “I told him they would hoist the colour earlier”, she said and grabbed her cup of sake.

 

A silent toast to her brats and Law for becoming wanted people. For becoming pirates.

 

~*~*~

 

He couldn’t believe it. On his desk were the new wanted posters out of the East Blue.

 

Three of them had caught his attention.

 

Monkey D Luffy, Portgas D Ace. Trafalgar Law.

 

These three shouldn’t be wanted, yet. He had made them promise to call when they leave the East Blue. Something they hadn’t done, yet.

 

So he was quite sure that they were still in the East Blue.

 

He sighed. How would his old friend react if he saw this?

 

If this old friend would be close by, he would most likely break into his office through the wall. But luckily said friend was far away from the island at the moment. So the walls of his office were safe.

 

But that didn’t save him from getting a call from certain friend.

 

“I thought you agree to help out preventing that they get a bounty.” The den-den-mushi mimicked an angry face.

 

“Garp, there was nothing I could have done to prevent this. The headquarter in the East Blue appointed those bounties. I only got them a few minutes ago together with the reports. There is something strange about this report. Because it said that they attacked without a reason and were a hindrance to arrest Arlong. Could you check it out as long as you are still in the East Blue? I can believe that they fought against Arlong. But I can’t believe that they attack Marine without any real reason. The report was given in by a marine captain named Nezumi”, he said looking into the report for the name.

 

He could hear the other mumbling something which sounded a lot like “going to give them a fist of love.”

 

“Garp, you can hunt them down after you checked Conomi Islands and have taken the former marine captain Morgan into custody to bring him here. That is an order”, he made sure to sound strict.

 

“Don’t worry. I’ll tell them to call you, Senny. So you get their side of the story. Bwhahahahaha.”

 

_“Gotcha.”_

 

Sengoku could only stare at the den-den-mushi.

 

This man was going to be the death of him.

 

The fleet admiral sighed and looked at the wanted posters again.

 

Ace looked quite proud the way he stood in front of the burning headquarter of Arlong. Law seemed annoyed in his wanted poster because he flipped off the photographer. Typical Law if you bothered him too much and he wasn’t allowed to use his devil fruit. But there was a hint of a smirk at the tips of Law’s lips.

 

Luffy had a big grin on his face. His eyes were nearly closed. Looked like the youngest was having fun despite the annoyed looking Ace in the background.

 

Maybe… Just maybe it was for the best to let them be pirates now.

 

~*~*~

 

Scum. Only worthless, weak scum tried to be hired by him.

 

He snarled when one of these weaklings came into his cabin.

 

“I’m… s-sorry, Captain. T-the o-other thought you would want to see this”, the scum stumbled and offered him two wanted posters.

 

Both showed black-haired teens or young adults. Why would those weaklings think he would be interested in snot-nosed brats (completely ignoring that their bounties were quite high)?

 

But then he saw the names.

 

Ace. Luffy. These names made his blood boil. He felt anger rose inside him.

 

He grabbed the scum. “Where?”, he growled and tightened the grip on the weakling’s throat.

 

“P-paper s-said Conomi Islands.”

 

That was the choked and stumbled answer.

 

He threw the weakling to the ground. “Set sail to Conomi Islands. I have some brats to kill.”

 

~*~*~

 

Rosinante stared at the den-den mushi he wasn’t allowed to use, yet. He was torn between trying to be patient until Garp had found them and ignoring the order and just call them.

 

He chewed on his lips and looked at their wanted posters again.

 

Luffy looked so happy in the picture. Law and Ace, too. Even if it was much more hidden with these two.

 

But that was beside point.

 

They weren’t out of the East Blue, yet, and they already had gotten a bounty on their heads. It worried him. How did they even get in the first place? None of them was the type to break a promise after all.

 

Also, it worried him that the newspaper said they attacked marines! Without a reason! That did go against the rule Garp had taught them. Only attack marine if they were a threat to them.

 

And this rule made it kinda hard to believe that they would attack marines without a reason. He curled his lips into a pout. He didn’t even have a chance to listen in when Garp had the talk with Sengkou.

 

His adopted father would most likely have the most information.

 

But no. Nothing was said to him. Except that their heritage wasn’t the reason as it wasn’t mentioned in the report.

 

That was a small thing that calmed his nerves. But there was another reason why he was worried now.

 

Now that Law had a bounty his brother would know. Rosinante was sure that Doflamingo would try to get his hands on Law and made him perform the operation to grand him an eternal life.

 

He started chewing on his lips worried about his oldest “baby”.

 

Yes, they were all three his babies despite now being grown up.

 

“Oi, Rosinante, stop staring at the den-den mushi. We will get them before they leave the East Blue”, Garp said laughing.

 

The blonde looked at the older man. He seriously wanted to have Garp’s positive attitude. Because he wasn’t so sure that they would get them before entering the Grandline.

 

~*~*~

 

He sighed and looked onto the ocean.

 

Despite now being nearly twenty years away from the place, he once called his home, he still hadn’t found her, yet. It was also strange to still feel a bit homesick… even if he could never return and didn’t call it home any longer.

 

He had failed to find her, yet, and because of him being here right now where he was, he was probably marked as a traitor. Something that only bothered him a bit.

 

The life he had now, was much easier for him. The pressure which normally was always on his bag had been lifted by his captain and this crew.

 

Now if he could only find a clue to her…

 

He turned his head when he heard steps.

 

A teen well more a young adult stepped closer with a stack wanted posters in his right hand and a single one in his left hand.

 

“These are the new ones. There are some women wanted. But I don’t know if she is one of them”, the teen said and gave him the stack.

 

He nodded in thanks. A small smile appearing on his face. He would look over these posters later. Now he was a bit more curious about the soft look in the younger one’s eyes.

 

“Found your mate, little one?”

 

His small smile turned into a smirk when the young adult blushed and he could hear a groan. “Please not you, too. The others already had a field trip with it….”

 

He laid a hand on the boy’s head and tousled his hair. “If you say so. But shouldn’t you start hiding then? After all, Mister Gossiplover will return soon.”

 

The teen groaned and folded the wanted poster carefully.

 

The only thing he was able to see from the picture was a big grin.

 

Now that was interesting.

 

~*~*~

 

She sighed and put another wanted poster in the fire. She had to destroy them before someone notice the similarities. It would be bad for the kid.

 

Not even on the Grandline and already having powerful enemies on his tracks. No, that couldn’t happen.

 

A bit sad she looked at the last poster. Pity, they all needed to be destroyed.

 

“Are you done, yet?”, a male voice spoke up behind her. “This is the last one”, she said and put it in the fire.

 

“Good. So no one here will suspect something.”

“It’s still sad that we had to burn all of them… Do you think we will meet him? I’m curious how similar they are.”

 

“If they are anything alike, we will meet him for sure.”

 

~*~*~

 

“Joker, how could you do that to my boyfriend?!”

 

A young woman stormed at him.

 

Doflamingo sighed. There she went again. He should seriously consider to net let her walk around alone any longer. Even if this was quite entertaining at some points, it was also starting to become annoying.

 

He easily dodged her attacks. Maybe it would be okay to let her vent her anger a bit and then calm her down. That would be the best. She was too emotional at the moment even if she most likely only felt needed not loved by her boyfriend.

 

This attitude of her was going to get her killed one day or maybe it would influence the whole family. If it wasn’t also to their use…

 

“Young master, you have to see this.”

 

Doflamingo turned his head to see Jora coming towards them with a wanted poster in her hand.

 

He lifted his fingers to trap Baby 5 in his strings and turned completely to his other female officer.

 

“This one came with the newspaper today.” Jora now turned the poster so he could see the picture and the name.

 

Trafalgar Law.

 

It had been some years since he last heard/read this name. Not since his own brother by blood had betrayed him and disappeared with the brat and the Ope Ope no Mi. Not even Vergo could have found them using the marines.

 

Well, looked like he would get a chance for eternity again.

 

“Where?”

 

“East Blue. We are already working on getting more information.”

 

“Good. Tell me as soon as you know more. I have to deal with a young woman’s tantrum now.”

 

~*~*~

 

He took a sip from his bottle and grinned about the wanted posters laying in front of him.

 

Monkey D Luffy.

 

The kid looked interesting and even without being able to see the eyes, he knew the boy must have a lot of potential. Otherwise, the straw hat wouldn’T have gotten into his hands.

 

He was quite curious about meeting this Luffy-kid. But another one got his attention.

 

Portgas D Ace.

 

The facial structure of the young man reminded him of someone. Someone who died years ago. If it wasn’t for the freckles on the boy’s cheeks and the different hat, he would have thought about seeing a ghost. Especially with the look in the young man’s eyes. He had seen it countless times and hadn’t know if he should shake his head or just laugh it off.

 

“I wonder if one of them will inherit your title, Captain”, he mumbled despite being alone in the room.

 

~*~*~

 

“Well, looks like we have been saved from pirates by pirates”, Nojiko mused to her younger sister who was packing her stuff. Nami just shrugged.

 

“I would prefer if they weren’t pirates nor marines. But well, it can’t be helped.” Her little sister lifted her backpack. “Are you going to be okay with the plantation?”

 

Nojiko grinned. “Yeah. Don’t worry. The village will be fine, too. After all, he did quite help to build it up again. But even if he did that… Are you sure that you would want him as your travelling guide?” She studied her little sister carefully.

 

“Don’t worry, Nojiko. He always treated me good. Also, he sees it as a chance to somehow make it up to me”, Nami said with a smirk.

 

Nojiko shook her head lightly in amusement. “That is an advantage… but why didn’t you ask them to take you with them? They don’t appear to be the type to stay in the East Blue.”

 

“You answered the question yourself. They will go the Grandline quite fast. They are going to be troublesome, I can tell just looking at their bounties. I could never concentrate on my maps if I went with them.”

 

~*~*~

 

She sighed. What were the others doing that took so long?

 

She was tired of laying low like she had done it for the last month.

 

But she had to. Otherwise, the marine captain of this town would notice her and that could lead to some awkward questions she would rather not answer. That was under the condition that the man remembered her.

 

But she wasn’t one to gamble on pure luck. So staying low and waiting for the others would be her best option.

 

To get her mind somewhere else, she turned her focus on the newspaper again.

 

First the articles about the local town. She lifted an eyebrow.

 

Did she overestimate the marine captain of this town? It seemed so. Because he hadn’t been able to catch this rude person who acted like some kind of Mafia boss. Or maybe the marine captain wasn’t really into capturing guys like that and focused only on pirates. Even if it wasn’t a good excuse, it would be a reasonable excuse in her eyes, because there came lots of pirates to this town. So maybe the captain was too busy dealing with pirates than with mafia bosses.

 

She put the newspaper away and started to look at the bounties.

 

Her eyes widened when she saw the last three. She knew these three. She had met them some time ago.

 

She frowned. Why would these three be pirates or whatever they were to get bounties? They were too nice… okay, Law and Ace did fi the pirate description often, but that was beside the point.

 

But… every one of the three looked happy in their own way.

 

Maybe not all pirates would be bad if it wasn’t the typical government bullshit to hide stuff.

 

~*~*~

 

“We have bounties”, Luffy cheered.

 

“Why is Luffy’s higher than mine? That isn’t fair”, Ace pouted which made him grim grin.

 

He had a higher bounty than his big brother.

 

“Luffy has hit this marine captain twice. They will think of him as the bigger threat than you. Despite seeing you easily burn down a pirate base”. Law said.

 

The surgeon didn’t look very happy about his bounty. Was there something wrong with it?

 

Luffy looked at Law’s wanted poster again. It did look good in his opinion.

 

“Be happy that you got a bounty!”

 

Sanji was pouting and Bepo nodded in agreement with the cook.

 

“Am I the only one who knows exactly what this means?!”

 

Law sounded annoyed. Luffy tilted his head confused and looked to his big brother and the others. No one seemed to know the answer, Law wanted.

 

“We promised to stay off the radar until we get into the New World. By getting bounties now, we can’t stay off the radar any longer. It means we ware official wanted as pirates most likely.”

 

Luffy’s eyes widened. They were pirates now.

 

THEY WERE PIRATES NOW!

 

“Wuhu, hoist the colour!”, he ordered. Because that would be a very good first order as captain.

 

“You know your grandpa will hunt and hit us now”, Law prophesied doom.

 

Luffy flinched. Getting hit by his granda didn’t sound good.

 

“Let’s hurry so we get to the Grandline before Ji-chan catches us”, he then declared cheerfully and looked to his big brother who was hoisting the colour.

 

 He put his straw hat on his head. They were pirates now and could openly declare their goals.

 

A smirk appeared on his face. Bevor Law could stop him, he flew on the top of the ship. Carefully he folded his wings so they wouldn’t get caught by the wind.

 

Then he took a deep breath and screamed:

 

“I am going to be the pirate king!”    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now I can ramble~ I like these jumping around PoVs without mentioning who exactly is acting there. It is a bit challenging to not write their names to stop using 'he' or 'she'. Also, I like these parts as a bit to build some stuff up and maybe give you some hints for later ;) You can already guess about the people who are not named. But I won't say anything about your guesses, I just tell you they are all Characters of the One Piece universe (meaning no OC).
> 
> Also, I can finally ramble about Luffy's devil fruit. Hands up who expected it to a be a bug xD I really wanted to use a Zoan devil fruit which seemed weak when you first hear it but when you think about it more can be quite strong. I choose a bug because Luffy really seems to like insects and then I came across dragonflies.  
> They are one of the best flyer being able to fly in any direction. Also, there are some other nice things that I will explain later without spoilering you.
> 
> But before I forget, SinOfTheFox made an interesting list of aspects which could lead towards Luffy's devil fruit. There was the point in Chapter two when Law mentioned that he hoped that Luffy doesn’t present because of the effects of his devil fruit type.  
> Remember Chapter 5 ;) Devil fruits affect the user more than people think when they present. A Logia Alpha is more aggressive and doesn't handle orders normally well (the reason why Ace had his trouble). Law hates being an Omega because when he goes in Heat he is more vulnerable because Paramecia Devil fruits seem to make Omega more submissive when they are in Heat. And Zoan affects both Alpha and Omega in being more possessive about the people they call family or their mate.  
> Just giving that explanation now to maybe clear some questions ahead. But I can promise you there will be more details about the system when they get into the Grandline.
> 
> so rambling over and see you in the next chapter ^^


	10. ~Chapter 9 - The last stop~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there and Merry Christmas~
> 
> the last chapter before they enter the Grandline and it took me nine chapters and a prologue to get there... Well, let's see how long it will take until they reach the New World. Also, I did spoiler a little in the second chapter that there will be nine "members" when they leave the East Blue. Now do your math and you get little spoilers for this chapter ;)

“Will you stay still, Luffy? Otherwise, you stay behind with Bepo and Chouchou and wait until we are back”, Law said annoyed. Luffy had been jumping up and down because he was excited to get back on the Grandline and he was also excited for the last stop.

 

Maybe he shouldn’t have told the younger one the story about Loguetown being the place where Gold Roger was born and also where the late pirate king had been executed.

 

When Ace had heard about this, he had become grumpy and told them to hurry when they were there. His mate really had some daddy-issues with his late old man.

 

But the story had the effect that Luffy didn’t want to ditch the last stop.

 

Said boy was now pouting but had stopped his antics. “But I want to see it. The place where he died and I want to finally go to the Grandline”, Luffy whined.

 

Law sighed and flipped the straw hat from the younger one’s head to tousle the black hair. “We have to think carefully about our next steps”, he said and looked back to where their ship came from.

 

It worried him a bit that there had been no indication for Garp being on his way to get them. For a strange reason, he suspected to see cannon balls flying at them soon. Haki training with the old man surely had branded him.

 

Also, there was a lack of Sengoku’s call to demand answers. After all, their wanted posters should now also be shown in the Grandline headquarters. He wouldn’t suspect his adopted grandfather to stay quiet that long.

 

The whole situation put him on the edge.

 

“Ne Torao, can I visit the execution platform? I want to see it… The place where he died”, Luffy said and interrupted his thoughts.

 

Law looked at the younger one. He could see the excitement in the other’s eyes. He felt a worrying feeling rise inside him because he knew that Luffy would attract lots of attention when he would reach the platform.

 

Law sighed. “We will see how quick we get everything done. So you can either go with Ace and Zoro to get new swords, some weapons and whatever wood they find to repair Shippy in case something happens. Or you could come with Sanji and me to get food, navigation tools and medicines.”

 

This wouldn’t be an easy decision. No for Luffy nor for himself.

 

Law didn’t know how the younger would think about it. He could only guess that Luffy would be interested in getting food (they need to shop more if Luffy was with them then). But also weapons would be an interesting topic. Even if the younger one didn’t use a weapon very often. He knew some basics and was interesting in them till a certain degree.

 

But the other stuff, they had to shop for, would be boring for Luffy. So it would be a tie between the two options.

 

The only aspect, which would maybe make a point that Luffy would go with him instead of Ace, was that the chance of seeing the execution platform would be higher. Because their first mate wouldn’t go anywhere near something connected to Gol D Roger.  Stupid unresolved daddy-issues…

 

“So Luffy, who would you like to go with?”, Law asked and turned to look at the younger one.

 

Only to find him missing.

 

He turned his head left and right but couldn’t see him. So Law used Haki to find him.

 

“Luffy!”, he screamed angrily after the boy who was already halfway to Logue Town.

 

Damn this stupid speed with these dragonfly wings…

 

~*~*~

 

Ace was grumpy. Well, his precious baby brother would describe him that way at the moment. If his said baby brother hadn’t the glorious idea to go ahead and was now ‘missing’. Also … Zoro had gone missing, too.

 

One minute. Just one minute Ace had been in a store to look closer at some studs.

 

Because of unknown reasons (to him at least), both, Law and Luffy, had been interested in getting their ears pierced. Until now only the surgeon had got it done (Dadan’s work), but his little brother had been too young for Dadan to do it for him, too. So Law had promised Luffy to pierce the younger one’s ears when they become pirates and if they could find some simple studs, which wouldn’t get in the way. 

 

And these studs, Ace had seen in the store, were perfect for Luffy. They seemed silver with little red highlights.

 

But back to Zoro. So Ace had only been in the store for a minute to look at the studs and to buy them. When he came back out, the swordsman was missing.

 

Why was it so hard for some people to stay in one place?

 

He sighed. Maybe he should quickly get the other stuff done and then should go looking for both. The swordsman and his baby brother.

 

“Oi, don’t you know whose territory you just walked into?”

 

Ace looked annoyed to the left where the person, who had spoken was.

 

There only stood some … well grunts, he would say. They did look and acted the same as the ones back home, he had beaten up together with Luffy and earlier with Sabo. This probably meant they weren’t worth his time at the moment.

 

“Don’t care whose territory this is. But I don’t have any time for you … “

 

A bullet went right through his head. He could feel the flames dancing on his head. Ace sighed.

 

“Guess I’ll need to take a bit of my precious time to play with you~”

 

A devilish smirk decorated his lips and he let flames dance around his hand.

 

~*~*~

 

Luffy started to pout.

 

The nice smoking man had given him the direct way to the execution platform. But now someone in a cloak was blocking his way.

 

“You should watch it from here.”

 

The voice sounded familiar… but Luffy couldn’t place it. He only knew that it was a female and he definitely met her during the time he travelled with his grandpa.

 

“Are you listening to me? You are going to be in danger when you get closer to the execution platform.”

 

She sounded annoyed and took a step towards him.

 

His eyes widened first when he saw an X-shaped scar on her right leg which was slightly covered by a holster.

 

Then a bright grin appeared on his face. “I’m so happy to see you again alive”, Luffy cheered and hugged the woman in front of him. Even lifted her a bit up to twirl her around.

 

“Stop it, Luffy”, she complained but she didn’t do more to stop him.

~*~*~

 

Law massaged his temples. He had set the groups to make sure they would get everything done quickly.

 

But now it looked like planning was useful.

 

Zoro had lost Ace when his mate had only told the swordsman that he was going to look inside a store.

 

How could someone lose another when the other only went into a store? Well, Zoro didn’t want to wait in front of the store but decided to want to wait on the bench on the other side of the street. And on the way to this bench, Zoro got lost!

 

How was that even possible? No one should be able to get lost on such a short distance.

 

Law seriously needed to edit their shopping list when they did their first stop on the Grandline. A leash for Zoro so that he wouldn’t get lost and that they could tie him to something when they went inside a store.

 

His eyebrow twitched dangerously.

 

The very reason for this was Sanji’s and Zoro’s biggering. It annoyed him that they couldn’t wait until they were back on the ship. At least there, he could threaten them to cut them apart without getting attracting more unwanted attention.

 

Maybe it would be a good idea to send these two to the ship. Zoro had already gotten new swords. So there was nothing left for them to do and without them, he would be much quicker in his search of Luffy and Ace.

 

Well, he would not really have to search for Luffy. Law was pretty sure that he only had to go to the execution platform to find the boy.

 

Ace was a different topic. His mate could be anywhere in this town except the places which were connected to Gol D Roger.

 

“Sanji, Zoro, bring the stuff to the ship and prepare to set sail. I’ll get these two idiots”, Law ordered after looking to the sky.

 

He may not be as sensitive to problems as Luffy. But for some unknown reason, Law had a very bad feeling suddenly.

 

“Shouldn’t one of us come with you?”, Zoro asked. Law shook his head.

 

“I am faster without our goods and you. So I’ll find Ace quickly and then pull Luffy back to the ship. In that time you’ll probably have just reached the ship and brought the stuff on board”, he said.

 

Both looked unsure at him. Like they didn’t like the thought about just going back and leaving him alone in town.

 

“One of them is possible attracting the Marines. So we have to be ready to get away as fast as possible. I can use my powers to confuse the Marines if they chase after us. But we won’t be able to get far away if the stuff isn’t already on the ship and the preparations to set sail haven’t started, yet”, Law said with a voice which didn’t allow any resistants.

 

It helped to convince them to go back to Shippy when a big lion with a familiar idiot on top walked by on a side-way. The docks seemed to be the idiot’s goal.

 

“Protect Shippy, if the idiot is planning to take revenge on us. Also, tell Bepo to call me on the mini den-den-mushi if anything happens”, Law said and started to run off.

 

When he started to focus, he felt Zoro’s and Sanji’s Presence taking the way to Shippy. Good now, he had to concentrate on finding Ace.

 

It bothered him a bit that despite the people in this town had a weak aura in comparison to Ace’s. But it blocked his range a bit.

 

Law stopped when people run in a slight panic out of a street.

 

“Bartolomeo is going wild! Run for your life.”

“Why did this had to pick a fight with the grunts?”

“Wasn’t it their own fault for picking a fight with someone who has a 30,000,000 bounty?”

 

Law wanted to facepalm. This idiot had gotten in a fight! Well, now he knew where he should look. Thanks to the panic crowd.

 

He pushed his way through cursing under his breath.

 

What was going on in this burnt brain of his mate? Picking a fight with some mob boss? Why was the order “don’t attract too much attention” so hard to follow?

 

Law grumbled. But his facial expression changed quickly to frown. He hadn’t really known what he should have expected. But he was sure that he wouldn’t have expected that.

 

In a destroyed area sat Ace laughing with a young man nearly to heads taller than his mate and slicked-back light green hair.

 

“Are you serious? Are you fucking serious, Ace?”, Law groaned annoyed and hit the black-haired one.

 

“You were the one who did push all of us to hurry so we won’t be in Logue Town for long. And now you took your fucking time to pick fights which most likely attract the Marines. I thought I only had to remind Luffy, but it seems as you need reminders, too. We have fucking bounties on our head. We aren’t even on the Grandline, yet! And you…”, he was starting to scold Ace but was interrupted by the other.

 

His mate grinned innocently at him while he pulled him into his lap.

 

“That is Law. Don’t even think about it. He is mine~”, Ace said with a slight growl at the end.

 

This made Law stop moving and focus a bit more. Why would have Ace implied that directly? Then he noticed it.

 

It was only a light smell. But it was clear. The light green-haired one was an Alpha.

 

“Feisty one”, the other commented, but didn’t seem to come closer like he respected Ace’s claim.

 

That wasn’t the usual behaviour for Alphas. Even if an Omega was mated, many Alphas came closer to smell the Omega better to decide if they should fight for the Omega or not.

 

“This is Bartolomeo. He is one of the local bosses around here. His grunts started to pick a fight with me and then he came to rescue them. But these idiot civilians were making it not very easy to have a good fight”, Ace said with a grim look on his face.

 

Law wanted to hit him again. It was like the other one had ignored the scolding part.

 

“Maybe they panic because you have one of the highest bounties in the East Blue”, hey said annoyed and started to free himself from Ace. “And we don’t have any time for chitchat. We still need to find your little brother. Also, there is possible an annoying circus-themed pirate crew here.”

 

Ace groaned. Well, that seemed to make him think about their situation again. “Okay, so we have to search my little brother and leave quickly?”

 

“I’ll help you. When two men fight fairly against each other, they become friends”, Bartolomeo declared.

 

Well, that could be helpful. If the green-haired Alpha had been able to hold his own against Ace, the other wasn’t weak and what would be even more helpful he knew the town.

 

~*~*~

 

Luffy pulled her after him. A slight pout on her lips which was hidden by the shadow of her cloak.

 

She hadn’t been able to stop the boy from getting on the execution platform.

 

But she had been able to stop this idiot clown from trying to execute him.

 

Seriously, what was this clown idiot thinking when he tried to kill her protégé as she had called him years ago or when she teased him she called him her godchild.

 

But the second one she wouldn’t use any longer. Because Luffy wasn’t a child any longer.

 

If she remembered right he could now present every day and would then be considered as an adult or he would stay a Beta and would be classified as an adult when he became 21 by the law at least.

 

Well … since he was wanted, he wouldn’t follow the laws set by the government.

 

“Captain Smoker!”

 

Oh damn, there came the marine captain. That was bad. With his devil fruit, he could trap them.

 

Well, she was sure that Smoker didn’t know how to use Haki, yet. But with his smoke, he would be able to slow them down enough to put sea-stone on them as he did with the clown and the slippery woman, who was now a teenager thanks to her fruit.

 

She had to take the lead and find a quick way out of this situation. Luffy would only run into a trap set by the marine.

 

“Ace, Torao, look who I met”, Luffy suddenly screamed.

 

She turned her head to look the same way Luffy did.

 

There came running towards them Law and Ace with a green-haired man who she recognised as one of the local mob bosses.

 

“Why do you always get into trouble, Luffy?”, the older brother of the little idiot pulling her asked. But he did seem amused. How was Luffy to learn some self-preservation if the older one didn’t scold him right?

 

Her attention was quickly captured by Bartolomeo.

 

The green-haired one crossed his fingers and she could hear a dull sound behind her.

 

A blue barrier had appeared behind them. Blocking the marine’s way.

 

So he had eaten a devil fruit. Now that would be helping to escape if they didn’t dock on the other side of Logue Town.

 

“No time for talking. Just get out of here”, she said and took the lead by pulling Luffy after her.

 

~*~*~

 

“Dragon-san, what is our purpose in being here?”

 

A small smile graced the cloaked man’s lips.

 

“You can do what you want. I’m here on a private matter”, he said and sent the top-hatted one off.

 

Now he should look for his son and make sure that he will leave Logue Town safely.

 

Also, there were these two other boys, who were close to his as far as he knew from his father’s rambling about the kids.

 

One of the boys was the child of Roger.

 

The boy shared Luffy’s fate in becoming just wanted for their heritage if that would be found out.

 

He sighed without making a noise and shook his head slightly.

 

Now was not the time to think about it.

 

Especially with all the screams from the Marines in the streets.

 

Maybe he should give them a good scare.

 

“You would definitely have enjoyed scaring them… right, Roger?”

 

~*~*~

 

Ace blinked once. Then twice. His environment didn’t change.

 

How had that happened? Only seconds ago they had been running away from the Marines when suddenly the weather started to change and the wind became stronger.

 

And now they were on their ship under clear sunshine.

 

For crying out loud, they weren’t even able to see Logue Town any longer.

 

How had that happened?

 

Ace turned his head to Bartolomeo who seemed kinda torn between being excited for maybe going on an adventure and worried if his men were going to be okay.

 

“Stop whining and just call them. Tell them, we kidnapped you to prevent the Marines from punishing you for helping pirates”, Law scolded the other Alpha. Just from the body languages of his mate, Ace knew the Omega was close to hitting Bartolomeo.

 

But the words had their effect. The shocked look of the light green-haired man made him chuckle before he turned to look at the female who had helped Luffy.

 

She had taken off her hood.

 

Dark blue hair, reddish-brown eyes and a slight frown on her face.

 

“Ain?!”

 

Ace was shocked to see her again. Because the last time they had seen her was after the attack on the recruits and the former admiral Zephyr.

 

She had had a sad smile on her back then when she told them goodbye.

 

Then she had vanished with Zephyr right after the appointment of a new Shichibukai.

 

“What a beautiful lady. I hope these idiots didn’t cause you any trouble. If not feel free to tell me, I’ll punish them for you.”

 

“Uhm, Sanji, you shouldn’t try to get flirt with Ain that directly…”, Ace started to warn the cook but it was too late. Because Ain had already kicked Sanji where it hurts.

 

“Sorry for Sanji… He is a bit of a ladies man, but he only means well in the case that he says himself he was born to laugh woman. His cooking also makes up for this tendency. I’m sure if he will…”

 

The sentence wasn’t even finished and Sanji had already run off to the kitchen. Possible making something delicious for Ain.

 

Ace shrugged his shoulders before he turned back to the blue-haired one.

 

“Thank you for helping Luffy. I know my little brother can be a handful”, Ace said and bowed slightly.

 

“Ne, Ain-chan, join my crew. You had promised me that you will travel with me when I’m older”, Luffy suddenly piped up with a big grin on his face.

 

“Oi, Luffy”, Law said and pulled the younger one a bit away to possible tell him why this would be a bad idea. But Ain spoke up.

 

“I’m sorry. But I can’t join you. I’m already part of some kind of a crew. I also have to try to get back to Logue Town, because they said they would pick me up there. Even if it possible still takes some time until they get out of the New World.”

 

“Then we will bring you back to your Nakama”, Luffy declared with a tone that made even Ace submit to his command despite the Alpha-nature.

 

Ain looked like she wanted to protest but Law, who had given up on scolding Luffy, patted her shoulders.

 

“You know that it is useless to argue with Luffy when he makes up his mind. Also, we are close to the entrance of Reverse Mountain to get to the Grandline. We can’t turn back now”, his mate said and pointed to the Red Line.

 

Ace grinned and turned his head to Zoro.

 

“I hope you and Sanji are quick on your feet still. Because Ain and Bartolomeo are also Devil Fruit users.”

 

He could hear Zoro groan. That would be fun.

 

But maybe they should also look for some people to recruit who haven’t eaten one.

 

Also… maybe they should start teaching Zoro and Sanji Haki. Maybe Bartolomeo, too. If the other Alpha decided to stay on board and if Luffy agreed with him being part of the crew.

 

A smirk ghosted over Ace’s face.

 

The mob boss would be a fun addition to the crew and also being able to boost their defence with his barrier.

 

And maybe they could convince Ain to stay much longer with them. Then they would have a skilled tactician also a person who could teach Haki without them using the methods of Garp.

 

The crew would be fine with this two addition.

 

A captain, a first mate, a surgeon (Law would hit him if he didn’t classify it), a navigator, a swordsman, a cook, a defender and a tactician. And also Chouchou as a guardian or their mascot.

 

A nice crew overall.


	11. ~Chapter 10 - Enter Paradise~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there^^
> 
> They are there finally. Finally, they reach the Grandline. Now I wonder how many chapters I need until they reach the New World~ Time will tell. And there will be some new Crew members during the journey through Paradise. Guesses up who will join, who will not join ;) I may have my notes but I can still change it until I have written it in my little scribbling pad^^ I hope you enjoy this one^^ And just a thing, I do know I tend to ramble with the review responds but there is one, I would really like you to read. I got it on FF.net and I thought it would be good to post it also here. It deals with writing mistakes and so on. You can skip it if you want. But I just want to give an explanation to everyone. Don't worry I mark the response so you can easily skip it.  
>  _English is not my mother language as I have said in the prologue. My mother language is German and in German the quotation marks are „". Since I didn't know how to change the correction language in Word when I started to write 'A different journey' the quotation marks were the German ones. I only found out later as you see now the correct quotation marks. And I was too lazy to change it in the prologue as it doesn't change the context or influence the reading in other ways (just my opinion)._
> 
>  
> 
> _The second point, Grammarly. I do use it, well the free version. It corrects many mistakes but for some reason, it does lag or I don't know how to describe it in one word. But often it shows me that everything is fine. Even when I then copy the chapter from the Word-doc to AO3. There may only be little differences because of American English and British English, but no heavy mistakes. Only sometimes months later when I'm already to chapters ahead Grammarly shows me mistakes in previous chapters, which is a bit annoying and I do tend to ignore those or just click correct very fast to be able to go on with the chapter I'm writing at the moment. So I don't really remember what kind of mistake it was._
> 
>  
> 
>  _All in all, I know that there are still mistakes left in the story because of the 100+ advanced mistakes, which are only shown in the premium version. But since no one points them out, I don't think they are much of a bother. And I do appreciate corrections if you can do it in a nice way or to describe it better with a favourite saying of mine "It's not what you say, but how you say it.". So just point them out in a nice way and the best way to help me correct them is quoting the whole sentences and maybe also leave the comment with the corrections at the specific chapter. So Thank you for attention._  
>  Now I hope you enjoy the chapter.

“Everyone stay alert. The passage up is very slim. So one wrong move will kill us”, Law said loudly when the shadow of the Red Line towered above them.

 

“Didn’t you say hat you travelled a bit on the Grandline with your grandpa?”, Zoro asked Ace quietly. The logia user nodded. “Shouldn’t he then be less worried?”

 

“No, this is the first time we entering the Grandline that way. With grandpa, we went directly through the Calm Belt. But it was Luffy’s wish to take the long way to the New World because he didn’t want to use any shortcuts on our journey”,  Ace explained quietly.

 

“Stop your chitchat and prepare yourself!”

 

Ain’s voice had a more dominant effect than Law’s. It was really easy to see that Ain had worked for the marine and was used to order people despite their gender around.

 

“Aye, Ain-chan~”, Sanji chirped with heart eyes and pranced to his position.

 

Ace wanted to facepalm. He would be surprised if Ain kicked or hit Sanji again because she wasn’t the type of girl you should try to flirt with non-stop.

 

“Ace, remember we need to dock at Twin Cape to wait until the Log Pose stays still for a few minutes”, Law said as he appeared next to him. The black-haired Alpha nodded.

 

“Can’t we just use an Eternal Pose?”, Zoro asked suddenly.

 

A small smile appeared on Law’s face and Ace knew what the answer will be.

 

“That would be a shortcut if we would use them directly. Something Luffy would want. The Eternal Poses are for islands on which the Log Pose needs longer than a month to set.”

 

“Uh~ the water is going up. That looks really cool.” Luffy’s chattering could be heard even if his younger brother was in the crow’s nest.

 

“That is the entrance. Everyone on their position”, Law shouted.

 

~*~*~

 

Luffy was having fun in the crow’s nest. He had one hand on his hat to stop it from flying away with his other hand he had grabbed the railing.

 

The wind of freedom was blowing in his face and also a bit through his hair. The whole ride in Reverse Mountain felt like a rollercoaster but better.

 

A bright grin appeared on his face while Shippy now went the waterway down. Soon they would reach the Grandline. Soon he would be a pirate captain on the Grandline.

 

Then he suddenly felt it. A presence straight ahead.

 

“There is something right in front of us”, he shouted down, before he narrowed his eyes trying to see what the obstacle was.

 

The presence didn’t feel bad. No more like it would be neutral or friendly towards them.

 

The wind blew some cruse words from beneath him up.

 

Then he could hear Law loud and clear.

 

“ROOM. Shambles.”

 

Their ship wasn’t on the way towards the presence any longer but right next to it.

 

The presences itself came from a giant whale which had his front covered in scars. It looked strong. Strong enough to destroy their ship with ease.

 

Luffy jumped down from the crow’s nest and stepped next to his brother.

 

“So this whale is the reason why the Marine most likely developed the technology to travel through the Calm Belt”, Law reasoned.

 

But Ain shook her head. “I heard that there is an obstacle for around fifty years around here. But the documents of their research noted that they started more than fifty years ago to search for ways to travel safely through the Calm Belt. It would be easier to help their bases in the Blues if they can travel through it”, she explained.

 

“Ne, Nii-chan, do you think we could get a bit closer?”, Luffy asked. He had lost his interest in listening to Ain and Law.

 

“What if the whale attack us when we get to close?”, Bepo sounded a bit in a panic.

 

“Roast it.”

“Punch it.”

“Kick it.”

“Slice it.”

“Block it.”

 

Three hits could be heard and one Luffy could feel.

 

“Ow, that hurt, Torao.”

“Oi, why didn’t you hit Bartolomeo?”, Ace asked. His brother sounded a bit insulted.

 

“Because his idea was actually not stupid. That is our best chance to get away without our ship getting damaged”, Law said annoyed.

 

Luffy turned his head back to the whale. He studied it carefully.

 

“Oi, whale. If you hurt Shippy, I’ll beat you”, Luffy said and raised his fist. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed that Law was getting closer to him again. Probably to catch him to stop him from doing something stupid in the other’s eyes.

 

But it was Ain who stopped it.

 

“How is the Logue Pose? If it is still moving too much we should dock. I don’t think the whale will attack us as long as we don’t provoke it.”

 

“It’s still not safe to follow it. It oscillates around 90 degrees”, Bepo said.

“So docking will be the best way. But we should still be ready as there are seven routes for the first half of the Grandline. If we don’t set sail quick enough once the needle is calm, we can wait again until it is set for another route”, Ain decided.

 

“There is someone over there on the island close to the lighthouse. I think it is a woman”, Zoro suddenly said.

 

In the next moment, Sanji was next to the swordsman and nearly jumping overboard.

 

“What a beautiful angel. Did it hurt when you fall from the sky?”

 

“He is in pervert mode again, that ero-cook”, Zoro mumbled.

“What did you say, marimo?” Their biggering started again and it was ended by Law.

 

“Be quiet and behave yourself.”

 

Luffy now took his chance to study the woman. She had light blonde hair and wore a long coat which hid her body.

 

“She does look nice and she also feels nice”, he then chirped up innocently.

 

“Well, I guess I’ll leave the ship first. Because you can be idiots in front of a woman and easily be tricked by one”, Ain said with a critical look at everyone.

 

“Hey, that was one time, Ain. Law was only fourteen and I was twelve when that happened. This was eight years ago. We did grow up since then”, Ace complained.

 

Sanji seemed to only agree with Ain because she was female. Zoro looked a slightly insulted look on his face and Bartolomeo was quiet.

 

“Well, when you go to her… can I call my friends to tell them what is going on?”, the light green-haired one asked.

 

“Are you going to tell them that you quit being a mob-boss and joined my crew?”, Luffy asked.

 

Bartolomeo’s eyes widened. It did seem that his question had surprised the older one. Then tears were cascading over the man’s face. “You really want me to join your crew? I would be happy. Because sailing was always something I wanted to do.” The words were a bit hard to understand, but the context was clear.

 

“Do you have a dream? Sanji wants to find the All Blue, Zoro wants to be the best swordsman in the world, Nii-chan wants to make a name on his own, Bepo wants to see Zou again and then have fun with us on our journey and Torao wants to be…”

 

“I want to be a great doctor and finish a good friend’s job.”

 

A good friend’s job? Who could Law mean? But Luffy didn’t think about it much.

 

“And I will become the pirate king”, the youngest one on the ship then declared confidently.

 

“I… I don’t have a goal, yet. But I will find one. Even if it just then be the goal to aid you guys to your goals”, Bartolomeo said still sniffling.

 

Luffy chuckled. “That sounds also nice.”

 

~*~*~

 

She was a bit surprised to see a ship that quick after she had landed here. Crocus-san had been right about people coming by to enter the Grandline. One of the five blue sea parts, well six. Crocus-san had told her that the Grandline is divided into two halves.

 

But she got even more surprised with this crew when one of them called her an angel and asked if the fall had hurt.

 

How could he know about her falling through the white sea?

 

She gently bit her lips and looked over her clothes. The coat did hide wings perfectly. They shouldn’t be able to guess about her not being from here.

 

Also, Crocus-san told her to be careful because not all people are nice.

 

There are some bad persons in the blues who would capture her and sell her to some vicious dragons.

 

An uneasy feeling rose inside of her when a blue-haired woman left the ship and came directly at her.

 

“I’m sorry if Sanji scared you with his flirting. He has a bad habit of trying to flirt with every woman he meets.”

 

The blue-haired one sounded honest. Also, it did calm her nerves a bit as she wasn’t detected as a person from Skypiea, yet.

 

But she shouldn’t let her guard down. Not until Crocus-san was back from taking care of Laboon.

 

“He doesn’t scare me… I’m just surprised”, she lied carefully.

 

Well, it was not directly a lie. She wasn’t scared of this Sanji trying to flirt with her, she was scared that these are bad people.

 

“That’s nice to hear. Then I’m sorry that we surprised you. We don’t intend to stay long. We just want to wait until our Logue Pose has set. Do you know how long it takes until it is calm? And also how long it takes until it is trying to pick up another route?”, the other woman asked.

 

So they didn’t want to stay long. That would be good for her.

 

But on the other hand, Crocus-san hadn’t told her how long the Pose needed to set. So maybe they would stay longer than they intended.

 

“Uhm… I don’t know. But Crocus-san does. He should be back soon from taking care of Laboon. Because he hit himself again…”

 

“Laboon? You mean the big whale has a name and is hurting himself?”

 

With a shriek, she jumped backwards.

 

A boy with black hair and a straw hat was now standing next to the blue-haired woman.

 

“Luffy, what are you doing here? I thought you would wait on the ship with the others and not scare the nice woman”, the woman scolded him. But the boy looked uninterested and even poked his nose.

 

“It got boring on Shippy. Zoro and Sanji are arguing again and Torao became mad because of that. And I wanted to see the island. How stupid would it be to not really look around the islands? It wouldn’t be an adventure. And I want to have lots of adventures during the journey to become the pirate king. Also, Chouchou wanted to walk around, too”, the boy Luffy said and became more cheerfully at the end.

 

Pirate king? These people were pirates? Were they like the pirates her father told her about? The ones who visited Skypiea more than twenty years ago.

 

Curiosity rose in her. Her father had said that Kami himself had met them back then and had also accepted them.

 

She was interrupted in her thoughts by something wet touching her legs. She was surprised to see a white dog sniffing at her.

 

“No, Chouchou, don’t do this”, the blue-haired woman said and wanted to pull the dog away. But it didn’t matter to her.

 

She kneeled down slightly and petted his head. It was comforting to do this. She realised now how much she missed her own pet. She hoped that her father took good care of it.

 

“Don’t worry, Ain. Chouchou is clever. He wouldn’t do that if she wasn’t nice. So it’s fine”, the boy said with a grin, before coming a little closer to her. “I’m Luffy and that’s Ain. And you are?”

 

She looked to the dog again before she lifted her head to look at the Luffy and Ain.

 

“I’m Conis.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter one at the start of the Grandline. To be true, I wanted to go on until they left. But then I thought I will split it there, because well maybe the next chapter will come earlier. Also now since the crew is expanding I'll try to give everyone a bit of screen time. I'll just mainly stay with Luffy's, Ace's or Law's PoV most likely. Don't know for sure. I can already change that tomorrow so don't point your fingers at me when I'll use other PoVs more.  
> There is another thing I thought about. Since I mostly write everything for the chapter on paper first, I can be a little slow because I don't want to write the stuff down in my word document when it is only one sentence. So I thought of maybe, just maybe writing some little 'filler' chapters in between. This can be a bit about Luffy's, Ace's and Law's time with Garp or so on. This 'filler' chapters will all be CANON for this story and will only deal about stuff I won't write about later. I'm a bit open want you would like to read.  
> The chapters I would publish in this story because I don't like making a new story for it. But they will be named like that ~Filler 1 - Chaptername~.  
> Just your opinion about that. I promise I won't upload two filler chapters in a row when there isn't a good reason (like me being very uncreative and I had these already finished before I enter this state).  
> It may shorten the time between the chapter uploads a bit ;) 
> 
> See you until the next chapter.


	12. ~Chapter 11 – A Fallen Angel and a Promise~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there.
> 
> I'm so sorry that it took me over a month to finish this chapter. But you can say I got distracted, was lazy, blocked and at the end also sick. So yeah, a good mix for being able not to write anything.
> 
> But I'm back with the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it. ^^

Luffy grinned at the blonde woman. "Nice to meet you."

 

Then he turned his head to look at the big whale.

 

So there was a person taking care of the whale. Now that was cool. This person got to be strong.

 

"I want to meet him. Can we stay here until he is back?"

 

He didn't notice the surprised glance of the blonde.

 

"We can only stay as longs as the Log Pose needs until the route is clear", Ain said with a sigh. "So don't think about running off. Otherwise, someone else will be quicker to reach the One Piece."

 

Luffy frowned. "I don't want a quick journey. I want to see the world and be free. Otherwise, it wouldn't be an adventure and you aren't the freest person in the world", he said and put a hand on his hat.

 

"Interesting view, young man", a new voice said. It was an old male who reminded Luffy of a flower. Was that the person who did look after the big whale? He didn't look strong, but Luffy could feel a strong aura around him.

 

"Crocus-san, is Laboon fine again?", Conis asked the man who nodded in return.

 

"He is fine for now. But I really have to find a way to stop him from trying to break through the Redline…"

 

"Why would it want to that?", Luffy asked, but Ain poked him and mumbled something about being rude. The black-haired one tilted his head and looked at his former babysitter.

 

"Sorry for Luffy interrupting you, sir. He can be a bit impolite", she apologized. "I'm Ain and this is Luffy. We just docked to wait for our Log Pose to set the course."

 

Luffy hadn't really listened to her apologie. His eyes were back on Laboon. He saw the scared front and it filled him with respect for this powerful animal for trying so hard to break through.

 

"It has some really strong determination", Luffy whispered.

 

A sigh of Crocus shifted his attention to the old man.

 

"Fifty years ago, Laboon came here as a baby whale, I guess, together with a pirate group called the Rumbar pirates. A lively, friendly crew. They stayed a few days to repair their ship. Before they left, they asked me to take care of him, because they thought it would be too dangerous for him. Two or three years, if I remember right, they did say.. until they would be back for him."

 

Luffy swallowed hard. He also noticed how Ain's Eyes widened in sympathy if he guessed it right. Like him, she knew that something happened. Because Laboon was still here and the reason for that couldn't be a happy one.

 

"They never came back. Around twenty years ago, I went looking for them. Maybe finding a clue what had happened to them. Because as beautiful as the Grandline can be, it isn't called a Pirates' Graveyard for anything. But… I didn't find them. Not even really a clue. Only rumours that they left the Grandline through the Calm Belt. But I don't rely much on the source for being true…"

"So they abandoned him…", Ain said.

 

Luffy didn't say anything. His eyes were back on Laboon.

 

The whale wouldn't stop hurting himself. Not under these circumstances. Not with this determination it showed.

 

But... there was a way how he could maybe help.

 

~*~*~

 

"You two better start to behave and not bicker every time you are around each other and the other says something."

 

Law was really in some kind of mother-mode. Scolding her misbehaving children. If it wasn't for the vein on the surgeon's forehead Ace would tease him for losing his cool. When he and Luffy had first met Law. Ace had thought that it would be impossible for the older one to lose his cool. Well, that was before his precious baby brother had wormed his way in the surgeon's heart. Now it seemed that Law's protective instinct for his baby brother had made his mate more prone to reacting more instead of being emotionless.

 

But whatever the reason was for it now. Ace knew that if he would tease Law the full wrath would be directed at him. Something he didn't want at the moment.

 

Because it was fun to see his mate being mad at someone else.

 

He couldn't really understand how Luffy thought that it would be boring to watch.

 

"LUFFY!"

 

Ain's voice made him turn his head and jump up as fast as possible.

 

"This will be bad", Bepo said in a panic.

"Luffy-senchou is strong", he could hear Bartolomeo admiring his little brother.

 

Ace followed the way they looked to see his baby brother fighting with the whale.

 

Over the water… His baby brother was fighting against a giant whale over the sea.

 

"Law, swap him. Please swap him. He will fall into the water and no one will be able to save him", Ace panicked.

 

He didn't care if he now showed that he had possible a big brother complex. But seeing his baby brother using his devil fruit ability to fly to fight against the whale above the sea was a worrying sight.

 

He clenched his fingers around the railing. His thoughts were running. How could he help Luffy if his baby brother got hit?

 

Bad memories raised inside him. It made him remember how once he hadn't helped his brother against a big animal and had nearly lost it. Just because he had gotten angry with Luffy.

 

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

 

"Calm down. Trust, Luffy. He wouldn't pick a fight like that for no reason", Law said calmly.

"But…"

"If there wasn't water on him you wouldn't be such a panicked mess."

"Yeah… Hey, I'm not a panicked mess. I just think about the possibility that Luffy could fall down."

 

"Why are you bickering? The fight is over", Zoro than stated behind them.

 

Confused Ace looked to his baby brother.

 

"Shishishi, you are strong, Laboon. Now it's a draw. When I'll come back we will have a rematch", Luffy said to the whale. To his surprise, the whale started to cry. What was going on?

 

"Now I will also paint our Jolly Roger on your head as a sign of our promise. So don't hit your head against something any longer."

 

Wait a sec… Had Luffy just started to fight against the whale to prevent it from hitting its head? What was his stupid brother thinking again?

 

The worry for his baby brother appeared. Instead, he felt angry at him. Ace went off the ship to give Luffy a piece of his mind.

 

His baby brother was busy preparing the paint. Ain, Chouchou, the blonde woman and an old man stood next to him.

 

He clenched his fists. A good fist of love would be good…

 

Shit… he sounded like the old man. But well… in this situation, he could live with it and then forget it.

 

So Ace hit his little brother hard on the head.

 

"Luffy-san", the blonde seemed shocked. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed that Ain shook her head softly.

 

"Ow, that hurt, Ace. You meanie", Luffy looked up at him pouting.

 

"Meanie?! I'm a meanie when you are being reckless and fight above the water without preparing anything in case you fell into the water. Just as memory, you cannot swim. You are freaking anchor as soon as you touch the water. Got it memorized?", he scolded his younger brother.

 

"But I had to something. Because Laboon felt lonely despite the Ossan being here with. He misses his Nakama and needed a new hope. That's why I fought him. To give him a new reason to hope and wait. It will be a promise to see him again", Luffy grinned brightly at him.

 

He couldn't believe it. His baby brother once again thought less about getting hurt physically… because there was one thing that hurt more. Being alone.

 

Ace sighed and hugged Luffy close to him. "Stop being such a reckless. You know as your older brother I can't help but worry", he mumbled.

 

He felt Luffy tilted his head. But the next words made him laugh. "So Nii-chan is afraid of being alone? But you are not alone. You have Torao, Zoro, Sanji, Chouchou, Greenhead and me."

 

He really adored his baby brother for being so simple sometimes.

 

"Mh~ boy, what is your goal?", the old man suddenly asked looking at Luffy. Ace's eyes studied the man critically. Who exactly was that?

 

"Becoming pirate king and be the freest person in the world", Luffy said with a determination like it was set in stone.

 

Well, it was set in stone for him that his baby brother would fulfil his dream and he would do anything to make it possible.

 

The man showed a rare smile. "You said, you want to have a great adventure on your way, right? Would you mind doing me a favour? It ends in an adventure for you maybe. Conis here isn't from the Blue Sea. She is from the White Sea, a wonderful place. Bring her home, if that is fine with you."

 

Ace, Ain and the blonde woman, who seemed to be Conis, looked surprised at the old man. Why did he suddenly asked them? And what was the White Sea?

 

"The White Sea? That does sound like an adventure. But we are pirates…", Luffy said.

"But you know the importance of a promise. Also being a pirate doesn't define the person. You said a pirate is free. So it is your decision to bring her home or not."

 

"Are you able to defend yourself at least a bit?", Ace asked and studied the woman. He knew that Luffy would say yes if he had deemed this person as okay or good. But he also knew that their route is going to be dangerous and they will attract lots of trouble. So everyone they take on board had to know how to defend themselves at least.

 

"Crocus-san thaught me a bit about how to shoot your weapons. But I don't think I'm very useful without dials", Conis said.

 

"Okay, we will take her home. She can stay on board close to Bepo or Sanji", Luffy decided and then went back to his plan to paint the Jolly Roger on the whale.

 

Conis looked surprised after him.

 

"Don't try to understand the logic of my younger brother. It can give you a headache just to try it. But I have a question for you, old man. Why did you ask us? We can't be the first persons who came by here since she is here, right?"

 

The old man had a small sad smile on his lips. "You are the first ones who value a promise and are worthy of being asked. There were lots of pirates who would probably have sold Conis into slavery when I would have asked them. Your brother is a devil fruit user so I guess you can imagine how much trouble it can be. Also, your brother reminds me of someone I met years ago. I have a feeling I can trust him."

 

Ace nodded while clenching his fist. Just the thought about the chance that his brother or anyone of their crew falling into the hands of slavers made him angry.

 

"Oi, the Log Pose is set. We have to set sail now", Bepo shouted from the ship.

 

"Well, need any help caring something, Conis?", Ace asked but the blonde shook her head. "I only have what I have on me."

 

Ace let Ain lead Conis on board and explain the situation while he took Chouchou and then pull his little brother after him the moment he landed.

 

"Ne, Crocus, I promise I'll see you again when Laboon and I have our rematch and I promise I bring Conis home safely", Luffy shouted his 'goodbye'-words to the old man. Ace just shook his head but smile. That was Luffy's way of saying goodbye.

 

But Ace didn't hear Crocus' last words and Luffy possible didn't hear them either.

 

"Roger, I think I saw someone who will be your successor."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the next chapter will be marked as a 'filler' because I don't know how quick I will write the next chapter and the first filler is nearly finished. So I will probably publish it in two weeks or so if nothing else happens which needs my attention.
> 
> To this chapter. There is one thing, I like to address just in case someone asked. The Log Pose, I don't remember how it was in the manga/anime. But if I remembered right they just set sail. But I think I have read somewhere on a OnePiece-wiki that some pirates wait at Twin Peak to choose their route. So I took it that way the Log Pose stays still for a certain amount of time before he starts changing again because of the different routes you are able to take. (I hope my explanation is understandable^^)
> 
> Also, I like to apologize in case if there are still grammar or typing mistakes. But I think Grammarly does have a little problem with showing the mistakes in time at the moment because it always shows 'loading/checking' but never finished despite that I haven't written anything in the document for 5 minutes or longer. So I only trusted the word-correction.
> 
> Just a quick question then, can it be that the free version of Grammarly does have its problem when the document gets too long (I have 90 pages).
> 
> But that is it for now.
> 
> See you next time^^


	13. ~Filler 1 - New recruits~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi^^
> 
> as I said in the last chapter this will be some kind of a filler chapter. But it is canon for the story. Just so that you know. I know filler as a bad touch because of what the anime did. But I indent to use fillers as little extra chapters to do flashbacks or maybe just show you stuff which isn't important at the moment but maybe interesting to read about or maybe become important in the later story. So yeah, that's how I intend to use filler-chapters. They will be marked as such. So you can either skip them and maybe be surprised when there is a hint in a later chapter to one of these fillers or well read them. Your own decision^^ I also just want to use them to shorten the time a bit maybe you have to wait for the next chapter^^ I hope it works out. So enjoy.

Bogard shook his head. How could Garp be that irresponsible like falling asleep when they had to take a prisoner to headquarter?

 

Especially falling asleep in front of the said prisoner. Well, at least only the doughnuts were cut. That would be a nice punishment for his boss. For not following the order and trying to get to Logue Town to have a nice talk with the three brats.

 

Those brats were possible in the Grandline already. There was news about Buggy the Clown, Iron-Mace Alvida being in Logue Town at the same time as the brats. Fortunately, these three didn’t have epithet, yet.

 

That meant nothing of their powers were known, yet. Or maybe they did know a bit about Ace’s. After all, the black-haired one had probably set the building on fire which was shown on his wanted poster.

 

Also, it did wonder him a bit why Garp didn’t do anything to help these chore boys trying to capture the prisoner. It would be easy for his boss to throw a cannonball at the ship or something smaller and hit the prisoner possible directly in the face. What was going on the mind of Garp?

 

He seemed to focus on the chore boys.

 

Bogard sighed. He had an idea what his boss was planning.

 

He wasn’t able to see the two chore boys, but he heard them. He heard their shouting. It made him smirk. Because it reminded him of the brats.

 

_~Flashback~_

 

“Put Luffy down, Jiji”, Ace shouted and glared angrily at Garp. Only to get hit by the older one. Garp was holding Luffy upside down in hopes to make him throw up.

 

“You are his older brother! How could you let him eat a devil fruit?”  

“How should I know that the fruit was a devil fruit? You haven’t shown us how they look. Only said we shouldn’t eat one, Jiji!”

 

Another hit for Ace and Luffy was dropped to the floor as it seemed impossible to make him throw up.

 

“I told you to call me, Jii-chan”, Garp scolded the older one of his grandchildren while the younger one now was now behind his older brother.

 

“Then stop hitting Luffy, Jiji”, Ace shouted back pushing Luffy even more behind him so that the child’s small frame was protected by his.

 

It was amusing to see his boss arguing with his grandchildren.

 

Then a strange smell of burned material hit his nose. Bogard turned his head to see that Rosinante had himself set on fire … again. How could the adopted child of Sengoku be so clumsy? He was sure that he hadn’t heard that much accident of the former marine while the boy had been young.

 

“You should stop smoking, Cora-san”, Law said and extinguished the fire with a bucket of water.

“Thank you, Law”, Rosinante hugged the boy and Bogard was sure that the oldest of the brat, they had on board, was trying to kill the blonde someday. If the look was anything to go with.

 

Loud snoring made him turn his head back to his boss, Ace and Luffy, who had all three fallen asleep.

 

This family was impossible. There was something about Ace’s blood ties they didn’t know because he had to be related by blood to Garp and Luffy. It couldn’t just be the D in the name which made him act so similar to the vice admiral and his younger stepbrother (well brother. Ace would try to hit anyone who tried to say that Luffy was his stepbrother).

 

Also, if the D was the reason, Law would act the same. But this boy had at least decent manners when you overlook the obsession with cutting things to open to see what makes them tick.

 

“Law, get Luffy and Ace to their room. I will have a talk with Garp to calm him down and maybe make sure that he will finally be a little more responsible…”

 

He didn’t really believe his last words. Because getting Garp to be more responsible was something that no one had been able to achieve. Not even Sengoku when giving out orders could get Garp to be serious. His boss always did what he wants. Sometimes Bogard wondered why Garp wasn’t a pirate because with how less the man cared about some stuff of government and rules it was a wonder that he worked for them.

 

Law had grumbled but took Ace and Luffy with him. Well, Rosinante went with him caring the youngest like it was his own child. It was a good thing that there weren’t any stairs on the way to the room. Otherwise, the blonde would probably stumble down the stairs with Luffy in his arms. But there were enough obstacles which could be a potential danger…

 

“Hey, where are they? I haven’t finished”, Garp suddenly said.

“You are finished for now. You should teach them more details about devil fruits and maybe find out what kind of a devil fruit Luffy ate. After all, you said you want to train them. So maybe you should know what kind of devil fruit it was.”

 

Garp looked at him like he seemed to think about it before he started to laugh. “Well, it could only happen to Luffy.”

 

Sometimes his boss was an idiot who changed his mind a bit too quickly.

 

“Jii-chan, Ace is on fire.”

“Am not. Be quiet, idiot.”

“Stop. I extinguished.”

“Cora-san, stop you are going to set yourself on fire again.”

 

Garp looked shocked at first before he started to laugh again.

 

“Looks like Ace got one, too.”

 

“Oi, get here you, brat. So I can give you a good fist of love so you don’t burn the ship.”

 

“Stay away, Jiji!”

 

Bogard sighed. He should ask Sengoku to get a higher paycheck. Because he definitely didn’t get paid enough to put up with that.

 

_~Flashback ends~_

 

“Please forgive my poor supervision”, the marine apologized when they had gotten the two chore boys back on board who had even shouted after Morgan that they would catch him someday.

 

They were gutsy when they had faced the prisoner. But now they bowed in apology. Looked like the comparison to the brats they had on board ended when they weren’t in an extreme situation any longer.

 

They even apologized, too. Something he was sure neither Ace nor Luffy nor Law would have done. These three would probably be like your fault for not getting involved.

 

Bogard wasn’t seeing the face of his boss. But he knew what the vice admiral was thinking and what would be said in the next moment.

 

“You are a burden to everyone if we let you stay here. So we have no other choice than to take you with us to the headquarter.”

 

There it was. Garp was going to take them probably in as new training subjects because he missed training his grandchildren. Hopefully, he wasn’t expecting too much from them.

 

“Garp-san, are you really going to take them with you?!”

“Yeah, got a problem with that?”

“No…”

“Do you two agree to come? If you don’t want to then now is your chance to run away.”

 

Bogard looked at the two chore boys. Both looked shocked that they got an invitation to come with them to the headquarter.

 

They probably didn’t even know what they sign up for when they agree.

 

“Though I have no intention of letting you say no, anyway.”

 

Bogard suppressed a sigh. He knew that Garp didn’t give them a chance to say yes or no. He had already decided what to do with them and would do it even if they didn’t want it.

 

Now it was going to be interested how life is going to be on the ‘Bad Doggy’ with two new chore boys on board.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the filler. Some parts of the dialogue were directly or worded differently from the Anime episode with Morgan, Garp, Coby and Helmeppo. So just that you know.   
> I had fun writing from Bograd's PoV to describe the troubles he has with his boss.   
> For the next chapter, it will probably be up in April. Also, a little bit you can influence the fillers by saying what you want to read for example the first meeting with Ain and so on. But there will be things, I will hold back because it wouldn't work out with the story progress at the moment. Even that is a bit in contrast to what I said at the beginning. But it's just that there is stuff, I don't want to write about in fillers before the hints appeared in the main story or the 'extra' is needed for the main story.  
> So until next time^^


	14. ~Chapter 12 – False Faces~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there^^
> 
> it's time for the monthly chapter of 'A different journey' ... oh wait, I'm a bit late. So I'm sorry that I didn't upload in April. But well I got a bit lazy and then had some stuff to do for my studies and every time I opened the document to write on I was mostly blocked. So this chapter is shorter but at least I got to a point where it felt fine to end the chapter. Because I don't like keeping chapters shorter than needed. I only do that if it is needed for building up tension or to underline the last sentence even more.
> 
> So yeah, I will only keep chapters short if I need to for the story otherwise the upload will be late. But I don't leave this story unfinished. So I will probably change the upload plan to I just upload when the next chapter is finished. I hope that maybe I will get some more chapters done in summer. So maybe I will get a little more ahead of this story and then will return to an upload plan with maybe twice a month. But no promises there.

Conis was surprised when she that the breakfast was very varied like the dinner yesterday. The cook really took his job seriously or as Ain had said he was trying to impress the blue-haired young woman and her.

 

"Here you go, Conis-chan", Sanji said and placed a steaming cup in front of her. "Thank you, Sanji", she thanked him and took a sip from it. Well, she wanted to.

 

"Oi, Sanji. More Food."

 

That was the demand from Luffy. The black-haired boy was already stuffing his face with food. Even stealing some food from Ace's plate while the older one had fallen asleep. How was Luffy able to eat that much?

 

"Don't question it. It is better not to wonder how Luffy can eat that much without gaining weight", Law said and held his plate towards the eating boy.

 

"Oi, Trafalgar. Eat your bread on your own!", Sanji said angrily. He didn't seem to appreciate it much that Law gave away the bread to Luffy.

 

"I won't eat this demonic product", the surgeon said without moving a muscle. He seemed dead-serious about the fact that bread is something bad.

 

"It is not a demonic product. It is very healthy. Something you as a doctor should know!"

 

"Sanji, please don't try to reason with Law there. He is a lost case like his adopted father."

"Oi, I never said that he is my adopted father."

 

Conis could only watch. It was a funny sight to see two grown men argue about bread. Even if Sanji had stepped down but only because Ain told him, too.

 

"Oi, Luffy, stop it."

 

The breakfast was somewhat chaotic, but she couldn't help but laugh about it.

 

~*~*~

 

"Island in sight."

 

Ain felt a bit relieved when Zoro had shouted down from the crow's nest. It had been some time since they had left Louge Town. There hadn't been a stop, yet, except the Twin Peaks. So she hadn't had the chance to buy some clothes for herself as she left everything except her weapons and the clothes she wore in Logue Town.

 

It was the same for Bartolomeo who had left with them in a haste.

 

Her reddish-brown eyes wandered over to Conis. The blonde didn't have any exchange clothes either. For her it must have been even harder as her start of a journey was even more unpredicted than her own.

 

But the island was also a way to call the others and let them know that she wasn't in Logue Town any longer.

 

Her eyes fell on Luffy. The black-haired boy was cheering something about adventure and first Grandline Island on his own journey.

 

It didn't feel right to maybe try and leave them now. Sure, they may be pirates at the moment. But maybe she was able to convince to stop being pirates and join their ranks for a better world. That would be nice.

 

Because she didn't like the thought of fighting against them. Especially Ace, Law and Luffy. She saw them growing up since Luffy was around ten or eleven. She wasn't sure at the moment. So it was only natural to develop a soft spot for them.

 

Because no one could tell Ain, that he or she met Luffy as a child and spent some time around him only to start hating him. No, that wasn't possible. Only if you were heartless.

 

"Ain-san?"

 

Conis' voice interrupted her thoughts. Ain turned around to look at the blonde. The Skypiean looked a bit unsure and uncomfortable as she was wearing clothes borrowed by Ace as it was easier to hide the blonde's wings since the first mate was a bit bulkier while Conis' frame was rather slim.

 

"Do you want to go shopping? We could try to find some more fitting clothes for you. I have to go shopping, too. So it wouldn't make much of a difference if we went together. We can also take Bartolomeo along as he needs some more clothes, too", Ain said with a slight smile. For one to get her thoughts back on the track and on the other hand, she didn't want to give someone an opportunity to read her mind because she wasn't careful enough with her facial expression.

 

"Ain-chan~ and Conis-chan~ are going shopping. Let me tag along to carry all those heavy bags you will have", Sanji swept in front of them with hearts in his eyes.

 

"No, not needed."

 

"Oi, ero-cook, don't run away from your task." "I'm not running away from my task. I'll just give the ladies a higher priority. But you wouldn't know how to act like a gentleman, you shitty marimo."

 

Ain immediately felt a headache started to grow. How could two grown-up men argue that much like little children?

 

It was easy to see why Law's motherly Omega instincts were a bit triggered by that even if the surgeon tried really hard not to act on that feeling if it didn't involve Luffy.

 

"Shut the fuck up, you two."

 

There was the statement to stop them from the black-haired Omega. These two really seemed to get on Law's nerves when he started to curse at them just for their biggering.

 

"Oi, Law, don't curse when my baby brother is around!"

 

Ain wanted to face-palm. She had a feeling Luffy would hear a lot worse when they really want to be pirates. So covering the youngest's ears wouldn't do much in her opinion.

 

"Ace, you know that he will probably hear lots of worse words when you dock somewhere and you can't be with him? Also, Sanji cruses as well", she carefully mentioned only to be met with one of Ace's death glares while he was still covering Luffy's ears.

 

"Ne Ace, what was is so bad about saying 'Fuck'?", their captain asked while poking his nose.

 

Ain suppressed a laugh. The face of Luffy literally screamed that he didn't really care about the word and its meaning but despite the somewhat impolite gesture, it also had some kind of an innocent charm which she had only noticed around Luffy.

 

This combined with Ace's shocked face was definitely worth the laugh.

 

"We will reach the island in less than ten minutes."

 

This statement from Bepo stopped everything spark of the discussion because there were still some preparations to take before they would go on land.

 

~*~*~

 

The island was nice. Even if the name sounded not nice, at least that's what Ain said. But Luffy couldn't really understand her feelings about the name Machigatta.

 

There was a small village close to the port and a big forest. It would have been nice to try and hunt there, but Law held him and Ace back. First, they had to do the shopping then they could maybe hunt depending on their Logue Pose.

 

It had made him pout. Because shopping even if it involved food was boring. Also, he couldn't understand why Sanji was slightly skipping and singing something about Ain and Conis shopping.

 

"Ne, Ace, did Sanji hit his head or something?", he innocently asked his big brother who was looking around.

"Probably."

 

But suddenly the answer wasn't interesting any longer. Because a group of funny looking people blocked their way.

 

"Well, well, look what we have here. A fortune of 90,000,000 berrie. If we hand them over to the government, we can get a promotion maybe."

 

Luffy saw Law's annoyed look. "Can we beat them up without holding back?", he asked. Because it was clear that these people wouldn't leave them alone.

 

"Well, there are enough~ Zoro, Sanji consider them training", Law said and that was Luffy's clue to ran into the fight.

 

~*~*~

 

Bartolomeo looked a bit sceptic at the blue-haired woman in front of them. The one who Ain had been called in 'Princess Vivie' in surprise.

 

Why should a princess be here? Also, the blue haired one didn't look or act like one. He had seen some royalties in Logue Town and to be true they all had a stick up their "asses if you asked him. So this one couldn't be a princess.

 

"I don't know who you are talking to. I'm Miss Wednesday." The voice was a bit shaken and she didn't really look them in the eyes.

 

"She's lying…"

"She is just as worst as Luffy."

 

~*~*~

 

"These men are annoying", Luffy grumbled as he sat down on a roof. Normally he enjoyed a good fight. But this one had been annoying. It also got him separated from the others. Why did they always get lost? Were they stupid or something?

 

Luffy massaged his temple with two fingers. A habit he picked up when Law had done it for him to focus more during the Observation Haki training.

 

Oh right, he could use Haki to find the others. Especially Ace's and Law's auras were something he would be able to detect even in his sleep.

 

But before he could focus, the young captain was distracted by what happened in the street.

 

A tall black-haired woman stood there with some men who looked like the idiots who attacked them, but also with two other women and two men who did look stronger. He didn't know why. But he felt the most danger came from the black-haired man with dread looks and sunglasses.

 

"So we shall eliminate her?"

"Yes, that is what Mister 0 has said."

"I already have the perfect plan. I just follow my lead. We will get the traitor and the little fortune that is walking around the island."

 

Luffy narrowed his eyes at the black-haired man with a three on his head. Strange hairstyle.

 

"Just tell Mister 0 that I will handle everything."

 

Mister 0? What a stupid name. Who would choose such a name?

 

His eyes were back on the street. Only the black-haired woman was still standing there. She didn't look very happy. But her aura did feel nice so maybe he could just ask for the way to the harbour. Because he had decided it was too loud to concentrate.

 

"Ne, are you a slave to them?", he asked and jumped down from the roof. A surprised look was on her face. But not long.

 

"Why should I be a slave to them?", the woman seemed confused about this question.

"Because you don't look happy while talking to them and you don't seem to like you want to talk with them at all."

 

The facial expression of the woman didn't change much but Luffy could see the surprise in her eyes.

 

"If you don't want to do it then why do you do it?"

 

The woman smiled and then only patted his head. "It's complicated."

 

"It can't be. You just have to become a pirate to become free", Luffy said. He didn't understand why people made their life complicated by doing stuff they clearly didn't want to do.

 

"Is that an invention, Monkey D Luffy?"

 

~*~*~

 

Ain bit her lip in concentration. She had to think of something really quick before this wax-guy found a way to get around Bartolomeo's barrier.

 

They had to protect Conis and the princess. That's for sure. But it also was tiering because Bartolomeo couldn't let the barrier down for one second.

 

There was this bomb guy who was shooting whatever at them and it just exploded and also there was the wax.

 

But they needed to get out the barrier area to get either away from their opponents or fight them.

 

"How much longer can you keep the barrier up?", Ain asked. She needed time. Even if she hit the ground with her power it wouldn't help them.

 

Before Bartolomeo could answer, a bomb exploded on the ground and made it harder for them to stand.

 

Ain had a bad feeling when the barrier appeared and disappeared in seconds.

 

She could hear Conis and Vivie scream slightly in panic.

 

But there didn't came another bomb or wax at them.

 

"Who do you think you are daring to hurt a lady?"

 

Ain's eyes widened quite in surprise. She hadn't expected Sanji to show up. But the cook had shown up just on time to save them by kicking the wax-guy into the bomb guy so the main force of their opponents was shortly unable to do something.

 

"Who are you?"

 

"I am the knight in shining armour for the ladies."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you the chapter was shorter... But I guess it did much for the story to give you some sneak peeks ahead^^  
> see you at the next chapter


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